PHILOSOPHICAL SEMANTICS AND TERM MEANING

In this book the author presents a meanings-as-entities view of term meaning utilizing set theory. In doing so the author discusses limitations of customary formal semantic theories, argues for the primacy of term meaning, provides an account of analyticity based on synonymy, discusses possible-worlds semantics, provides a defense of our traditional—and common-sense—view of meanings as entities, and sketches an approach to bridging the gap between formal semantics and natural language. The author discusses the views of many philosophers, including Carnap, Donnellan, Hintikka, Kripke, Linsky, Quine, Russell, and Searle.