Carnap on meaning and analyticity [Reprint 2018 ed.] 9783111677620, 9783111292137

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
Notational Key
I. Meaning, Analyticity, and Explication
II. Explication and Analyticity
III. Explication and Meaning
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

C A R N A P ON M E A N I N G A N D A N A L Y T I C I T Y

JANUA LINGUARUM STUDIA MEMORIAE NICOLAI VAN WIJK DEDICATA

edenda curai

C. H. V A N S C H O O N E V E L D INDIANA UNIVERSITY

SERIES MINOR 85

1970

MOUTON THE H A G U E • P A R I S

CARNAP ON MEANING AND ANALYTICITY by RICHARD BUTRICK, Jr. OHIO U N I V E R S I T Y

1970

MOUTON THE HAGUE • PARIS

© Copyright 1970 in The Netherlands. Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 78-106469

Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague.

To Lyn

PREFACE

Recent journal articles in linguistics and philosophy evidence that concern with clarification of analyticity still continues within the framework of explication formally initiated by Carnap. Attempts are still being made to prove that there is some property or feature that makes or excludes logic or mathematics as analytic — as if this were somehow crucial to clarification of analyticity. Alternative "definitions" of 'analyticity' and its kith are still being weighed as if clarification of analyticity meant choosing alternative definitions with their resultant reclassification of sentences as analytic or synthetic. Endless controversy in these matters is an indication that something is amiss, and that is that clarification of analyticity has been mistakenly construed as a matter of explication. Under Caraap's program of explication, meaning was regarded as a relation which could be clarified by developing a "theory of meaning". Again, one need not go far into contemporary journals to find clarification of meaning construed as a problem of formulating a theory of meaning. That these are separable issues has been well argued by Ryle and others, but evidently the point needs to be rescored. This study is a revision of the author's recent doctoral dissertation at Columbia. The revisions are based in part on the author's forthcoming article in Mind, and the author would like to thank Gilbert Ryle for permission for its use. The author further wishes to express his thanks to Sidney Morgenbesser for his kind encouragement and adroit criticisms of the original thesis. Thanks are

8

PREFACE

also due to Arthur Danto and Arnold Koslow for their helpful comments and suggestions, and to Alonzo Church for his commentary on pp. 58-62. Special thanks are due to Bette Bridgeman and Joy Linton for hot summer days with a typewriter, and to Con Knorr who undertook final reading of the manuscript, supplying many corrections and suggestions. The author thanks the administrators of the Ohio University Research Institute for defraying pre-publication costs. Athens, Ohio Oct., 1968

Richard Butrick, Jr.

CONTENTS

Preface

7

Notational Key

11

I. Meaning, Analyticity, and Explication

13

II. Explication and Analyticity 17 A. The Identifying Feature of Analyticity in Terms of Consequence Rules 17 B. The Identifying Feature of Analyticity in Terms of State-Descriptions 22 C. The Alternative Analysis 29 III. Explication and Meaning A. The Positive Claims B. The Case Against Carnap's Explication C. The Alternative Analysis

. . .

41 42 63

Bibliography

75

Index

76

NOTATIONAL KEY

The following notation is used in the body of the text and in place of alternative notation of authors cited. Where additional letters are needed they will be generated by indexing or accents. 1.