Zalabardo, Jose;
(2023)
Pragmatist meaning grounds.
In:
Pragmatist Semantics: A Use-Based Approach to Linguistic Representation.
(pp. 84-106).
Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
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Abstract
The goal of this chapter is to present the basic ideas of the pragmatist approach to the task of specifying the meaning grounds of a declarative discourse. The approach is introduced by reference by the criterial/anti-realist/justificationist position, according to which the meaning ground of a declarative sentence consists in the conditions in which its assertion is warranted. The pragmatist approach presented here differs from the justificationist approach in two main respects. First, it dispenses with the notion of warranted assertibility or similar epistemic notions, concentrating instead on the conditions under which the sentence is actually asserted, or the procedure employed for regulating its assertion. Second, it replaces the notion of assertion with the notion of acceptance, as a conscious attitude towards a sentence consisting in the conviction that things are as the sentence represents them as being. In sum, when a sentence has a pragmatist meaning ground, it has the meaning it has by virtue of the procedure that regulates its acceptance. The roots of this proposal in Wittgenstein’s notion of a criterion are vindicated. The chapter also explains the difference between the pragmatist proposal and verificationist/subjectivist positions, on the one hand, and expressivist/non-cognitivist positions, on the other, as well as the brand of pragmatism defended by Robert Brandom. The chapter ends with an outline of the relationship between the contrast presented here between representationalist and pragmatist meaning grounds, on the one hand, and the contrast between realist and irrealist positions drawn by James Dreier in terms of the ‘explanation’ explanation.
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | Pragmatist meaning grounds |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/oso/9780192874757.003.0005 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192874757.003.0005 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | anti-realism, criteria, assertibility, assertion, subjectivism, verificationism, neo-pragmatism, non-cognitivism, expressivism, Robert Brandom |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Philosophy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10191133 |
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