Context, content, and relativism
Philosophical Studies 136 (1):1--29 (2007)
| Abstract | This paper argues against relativism, focusing on relativism based on the semantics of predicates of personal taste. It presents and defends a contextualist semantics for these predicates, derived from current work on gradable adjectives. It then considers metasemantic questions about the kinds of contextual parameters this semantics requires. It argues they are not metasemantically different from those in other gradable adjectives, and that contextual parameters of this sort are widespread in natural language. Furthermore, this paper shows that if such parameters are rejected, it leads to an unacceptably rampant form of relativism, that relativizes truth to an open-ended list of parameters. | |||||||||
| Keywords | philpapers: relativism about truth | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,705 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesCrispin Wright (2007). New Age Relativism and Epistemic Possibility: The Question of Evidence. Philosophical Issues 17 (1):262--283.
Stefano Predelli & Isidora Stojanovic (2008). Semantic Relativism and the Logic of Indexicals. In Manuel García-Carpintero & Max Kölbel (eds.), Relative Truth. Oxford University Press.
Patrick Greenough (2011). Truth-Relativism, Norm-Relativism, and Assertion. In Brown J. & Cappelen H. (eds.), Assertion: New Philosophical Essays. Oxford University Press.
James O. Young (2009). Relativism, Standards and Aesthetic Judgements. International Journal of Philosophical Studies 17 (2):221 – 231.
Berit Brogaard (2008). In Defence of a Perspectival Semantics for 'Know'. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 86 (3):439 – 459.
Brian Weatherson (2009). Conditionals and Indexical Relativism. Synthese 166 (2):333-357.
Aaron Z. Zimmerman (2007). Against Relativism. [REVIEW] Philosophical Studies 133 (3):313-348.
Peter Lasersohn (2011). Context, Relevant Parts and (Lack of) Disagreement Over Taste. Philosophical Studies 156 (3):433-439.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads80 ( #9,742 of 549,197 )Recent downloads (6 months)5 ( #15,251 of 549,197 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
