Truth in Virtue of Meaning: A Defence of the Analytic/Synthetic Distinction

Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 14
Introduction......Page 18
I. THE POSITIVE VIEW......Page 42
1.1 The Two-Factor Argument......Page 46
1.2 Disambiguating ‘in virtue of’......Page 49
1.3 Collapse into Necessity?......Page 54
2.1 The Language Myth......Page 60
2.2 Kripke and Kaplan......Page 64
2.3 Truth in Virtue of Reference Determiner......Page 69
2.4 Examples of Analytic Truths......Page 74
2.5 Two Objections and a Serious Problem......Page 83
3.1 The Problem......Page 88
3.2 Semantics and Modality......Page 89
3.3 Strict Truth in Virtue of Meaning......Page 99
3.4 The Definition of Analyticity......Page 116
3.5 Examples......Page 121
A.1 Preliminaries......Page 126
A.2 The Language......Page 134
A.3 Semantics......Page 136
A.4 Content, Validity and Reference Determiners......Page 138
A.5 Some Theorems......Page 139
II. A DEFENSE......Page 142
4.1 The Circularity Objection......Page 146
4.2 The Argument from Confirmation Holism......Page 152
5. Definitions......Page 160
5.1 The Transience of Definition......Page 161
5.2 Rethinking Definitions......Page 163
5.3 Definitions as Postulates......Page 174
5.4 Conventions of Notational Abbreviation......Page 176
6.1 The Regress Argument......Page 180
6.2 The Indeterminacy of Translation......Page 187
6.3 Two Arguments from Externalism......Page 192
6.4 An Argument from Vagueness......Page 194
6.5 Blue Gold, Robot Cats......Page 197
III. WORK FOR EPISTEMOLOGISTS......Page 208
7. Analytic Justification......Page 212
7.1 A Priori Justification......Page 213
7.2 Analytic Justification......Page 215
7.3 Theory 1: Naive Analytic Justification......Page 216
7.4 Theory 2: Nihilism about Analytic Justification......Page 219
7.5 The Problem of Semantic Competence......Page 220
7.6 An Alternative Basis for Analytic Justification......Page 224
7.7 Theory 3: Analytic Justification......Page 226
7.8 Some Consequences......Page 232
Bibliography......Page 240
C......Page 246
K......Page 247
S......Page 248
Z......Page 249