45
votes
Accepted
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
You understand what the sentence means; therefore, it is not nonsense. We can perform all sorts of analyses to try to analyse why the sentence is meaningful (e.g. the "nose" refers both to ...
- 1,977
16
votes
How can one refute John Searle's "syntax is not semantics" argument against strong AI?
Wittgenstein in his intermediate period provided a response, before the age of AI research and Searle's objections. In a nutshell: semantics is another syntax. Words only mean as role players in a ...
- 42.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Is mathematics a language?
It is more than that. Even if we take the Galileo's metaphor literally, he is suggesting that there is a language of mathematics, specifically geometry, not that mathematics, as such, is a language:
...
- 42.5k
11
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
"Fake" in "fake nose" typically means the nose is artificial (e.g. man-made and surgically inserted), not that it's not a nose.
One might go one step further and say that it ...
- 5,416
9
votes
Is music just another language?
The answer is straightforward in the context of Chomsky's universal grammar, which music does not fit. However, the innate grammar structures postulated by Chomsky were not as universally encountered ...
- 42.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Feminist linguistics?
You will find that a Google search for "feminist linguistics" returns a plethora of results. You may care to browse through those.
It might be an idea to start with SEP - Feminist philosophy ...
- 2,465
7
votes
Is music just another language?
In the context of the linked interview, both Chomsky and his interviewer have an understanding of the term "language" that excludes music from it.
To put it as a syllogism:
(P) All language ...
- 5,257
7
votes
If calculating the p-value post-hoc is meaningless, why is it reasonable to believe the Grimm's Law (and other laws of historical phonology) is true?
I'm not sure that Grimm's law should be viewed a natural law akin to the laws of thermodynamics, rather it should be viewed as a condensation of empirical observations into a structure that aids in ...
- 5,257
6
votes
Accepted
Have I got Saussure's distinction between the form and substance right?
Saussure is playing with two traditional dicotomies : the aristotelian : form/matter (their union is the substance) and the "(traditional) linguistic : form/content.
See CLG, Ch.4:
[ page 156 ] La ...
- 36.1k
6
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
By your argument a "rubber duck" is nonsense too, as is a "prosthetic leg".
Avoiding this type of pedantry/sophistry just renders human conversation too tiring to bother. Anything ...
- 161
5
votes
Linguistic philosophical distinction between 'believe in' & 'believe that'
Not entirely sure what you mean by "linguistic philosophical distinction" nor am I completely clear on the origins, though a few websites do seem to validate sourcing it to H.H. Price.
I am ...
- 24.6k
5
votes
Is Architecture a Language?
I have yet to see it in an answer presented, but to call architecture a language is just a metaphor. It's simply an implicit comparison, one that does not use "like" or "as". How ...
- 22.7k
5
votes
How would Wittgenstein explain the ability of blind people to learn a language?
Pointing is not meant physically, but logically. In the same way seeing is meant conceptually, as a metaphor.
"In this sort of predicament, always ask yourself: How did we learn
the meaning of ...
- 20.5k
4
votes
If calculating the p-value post-hoc is meaningless, why is it reasonable to believe the Grimm's Law (and other laws of historical phonology) is true?
"In the scientific method, you come up with a function to calculate the p-value before you do the experiment." Quite right. But in this case, it is not possible to do any experiments, so you ...
- 2,465
4
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
Wittgenstein spent a lot of time on this sort of thing. Is the word "cat" a cat. No. Is a photograph of a cat a cat? No. Is a fake nose a nose? No. But the statement "That nose is fake&...
- 1,693
3
votes
Is mathematics a language?
If "language" is defined as a means to convey information, knowledge, feelings, etc. from a source to a receptor, then mathematics certainly meets the requirement.
From this perspective, mathematics ...
- 1,754
3
votes
Could philosophy be top-down?
I would add to Mozibur's answer that several of the historically notable philosophers have tried to build complete philosophical systems from the ground up. Look at Kant and early Wittgenstein as ...
- 27.1k
3
votes
Accepted
How do we understand and fix reference for scientific units of measure?
Unfortunately, we do not have a satisfactory theory of meaning (semantics) of natural languages, i.e. of understanding words, or even of using them (pragmatics). Kripke's causal theory of reference ...
- 42.5k
3
votes
Is music just another language?
According to Psychology Today
Music is a universal language. Or so musicians like to claim.... [But is it?] That depends on what you mean by “universal” and what you mean by “language.”
Every human ...
- 389
3
votes
Accepted
How can one refute John Searle's "syntax is not semantics" argument against strong AI?
The "syntax is not semantics" principle in the Chinese Room Argument (CRA) is based on the relationship between the Searle-computer and the Chinese symbols. Searle correctly characterizes this as a ...
- 114
3
votes
Accepted
Lacan seems to invert 'metaphor' and 'metonymy': why?
Lacan's views are based on Roman Jakobson's analysis of language:
“Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances”, page 49-on.
According to Jakobson:
Speech implies a selection of ...
- 36.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Was indeterminacy of linguistic meaning, as understood by Quine, anticipated by the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition?
I see two separate issues here, the determinateness of meanings and Quine's behaviorist route to rejecting it. While the latter is indeed subject to much criticism it is not conjoined at the hip to ...
- 42.5k
3
votes
What is the relation between Sense/Denotation and Intension/Extension
Regarding Sense and Denotation, you are right: the source is the philosophy of Gottlob Frege :
The reference (German: Bedeutung) of a proper name is the object it means or indicates (bedeuten), its ...
- 36.1k
3
votes
Accepted
What is the relation between Sense/Denotation and Intension/Extension
While the intension/extension distinction is ancient and unproblematic, the details of sense/reference (denotation) distinction are controversial, and are still evolving. I will suggest here a ...
- 7,311
3
votes
Accepted
References for the study of language
Daniel Chandler wrote a book Semiotics: the Basics and also supplies an online version here. For a large part of English speaking academia, after Chomsky's reformulation of linguistics into the field ...
- 2,841
3
votes
Semantic Values of Sentences
You can do what you want in the framework of Heim & Kratzer's Semantics in Generative Grammar; 'some' is treated in section 6.4 as you describe it.
[[some snake]] = [[some]]([[snake]]) = λg . ∃x ...
- 131
3
votes
Accepted
The Origin of Thought
Thoughts come from nowhere and from everywhere! Both - both contain an element of truth.
Subjectively, our thoughts come from nowhere: they just pop into our heads or emerge in the form of words ...
- 861
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