How to be a meaning holist

Journal of Philosophy 93 (2):51-73 (1996)
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Abstract

Meaning holists hold, roughly, that each representation in a linguistic or mental system depends semantically on every other representation in the system. The main difficulty for holism is the threat it poses to meaning stability--shared meaning between representations in two systems. If meanings are holistically dependent, then semantic differences anywhere seem to balloon into semantic differences everywhere. My positive aim is to show how holism, even at its most extreme, can accommodate and also increase meaning stability. My negative aim is to provide reasons for rejecting various nonholist proposals, at least for systems of mental representations

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Eric Lormand
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Citations of this work

Concepts and Cognitive Science.Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis - 1999 - In Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (eds.), Concepts: Core Readings. MIT Press. pp. 3-81.
Semantic Plasticity and Speech Reports.Cian Dorr & John Hawthorne - 2014 - Philosophical Review 123 (3):281-338.
Concepts.Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence - 2003 - In Stephen P. Stich & Ted A. Warfield (eds.), Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind. Blackwell. pp. 190-213.
Moderate holism and the instability thesis.Henry Jackman - 1999 - American Philosophical Quarterly 36 (4):361-69.

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References found in this work

The methodology of naturalistic semantics.Michael Devitt - 1994 - Journal of Philosophy 91 (10):545-72.
The Methodology of Naturalistic Semantics.Michael Devitt - 1994 - Journal of Philosophy 91 (10):545-572.

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