Unwrinkling the carpet of meaning: Stephen Schiffer, the things we mean
Philosophy of the Social Sciences 37 (1):85-99 (2007)
| Abstract | This article is a critical review of Stephen Schiffer’s monograph The Things We Mean . The text discusses some novel contributions made by Schiffer to the philosophy of meaning, in particular, Schiffer’s proposal for the reification of certain abstract entities and the application of his argument to the philosophical problem of vagueness in natural language. Special attention is paid both to Schiffer’s ingenious use of the notion of conservative extension , here employed as a criterion for distinguishing legitimate from illegitimate reifications and to Schiffer’s notion of vague partial belief and its relation to standard partial belief. Schiffer’s particular understanding of vagueness and its relation to the sorites paradox is also considered, with some remarks made concerning the relationship between these related philosophical problems and human perception. Key Words: meaning • vagueness • sorites • perception • conservative extension • fictional entities. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,672 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesMassimiliano Vignolo (2009). Pleonastic Entities: Fictional Characters and Propositions. Philosophical Investigations 32 (1):65-78.
Thomas Hofweber (2006). Schiffer's New Theory of Propositions. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73 (1):211–217.
Peter Pagin (2005). Review of Stephen Schiffer, The Things We Mean. [REVIEW] Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (7).
Stephen R. Schiffer (1972). Meaning. Oxford,Clarendon Press.
Stephen R. Schiffer (2003). The Things We Mean. Oxford University Press.
Louise Antony (1991). A Pieced Quilt: A Critical Discussion of Stephen Schiffer'sRemnants of Meaning. Philosophical Psychology 4 (1):119-137.
Matti Eklund (2006). Schiffer on Vagueness. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 87 (1):12–23.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads17 ( #71,063 of 549,069 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,252 of 549,069 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
