Date of Award
2008
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Philosophy
Supervisor
Dr. William Demopoulos
Second Advisor
Dr. Robert Stainton
Third Advisor
Dr. Robert Di Salle
Abstract
Tliis dissertation examines the nature and role of linguistic analysis as it lias been practiced within contemporary analytic philosophy. Its major theme centers on an examination of the clash between empirical or naturalist approaches to the study of language, and non-empirical, “conceptual,” or philosophical ones. There are three conflicts of this sort tlιat I examine. The first is the debate between Strawson and Russell over tlιe nature of definite descriptions. The second is the debate between Quine and Carnap regarding the concept of analyticity, and the third is the position staked out by a leading member of The New Pliilosophy of Language concerning the viability of Frege’s context principle. The burden of this dissertation is to give a clear diagnosis of how these conflicting views were generated, what they ultimately concern, and how, in the end, they might be resolved. In the course of doing this, I mount a sustained defense of the legitimacy of non-empirical linguistic methodologies as they appear in the work of Frege, Russell, and Carnap.
Recommended Citation
Barth, Aaron, "Reconstructive and Natural Language Applications of Linguistic Analysis" (2008). Digitized Theses. 4749.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4749