|
 Building
a home philosophy library
Lyn
May and Steve Deery
The
twenty-fourth in a series of articles advising on how to build your
own home philosophy library.
No.
24 Michael Dummett, The Seas of Language
Michael
Dummett's The Seas of Language is a collection of essays
drawn from various publications which shows that what seems like
a satisfactory basis for understanding terms like refer,
meanings and truth-conditions for one philosopher
often seems to another philosopher a non-starter. While Davidson
associates sentence-meaning with realist truth-conditions - every
statement is either true or false - Dummett takes an anti-realist
stance in denying this either/or choice. He argues that we do not
have any proof that it is necessary to take the concept of truth
as the basic notion for a theory of meaning.
These
collected essays should not stand as Dummett's final word on the
issues he raises but rather as attempts made at various times to
handle specific philosophical problems. That said, Dummett states
clearly where he differs from what he regards as the "serenely
held assumption" that a theory of meaning is taken to have,
as its core, a specification of the truth conditions of a sentence.
Dummett
is clear and concise. But it is only fair to mention he is also
a formidable writer - be prepared for a large intake of breath.
The same goes for reading the rest of the philosophy of language
too.
The
Seas of Language by Michael Dummett (Clarendon) £18.99/$24.95
A
new book will be featured early January 2003.
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