Richard Gaskin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239450
- eISBN:
- 9780191716997
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239450.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter considers in more detail the charge of arbitrariness lodged against Frege's philosophical grammar in Chapter 3. Frege conceives expressions and their referents to be arranged in ...
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This chapter considers in more detail the charge of arbitrariness lodged against Frege's philosophical grammar in Chapter 3. Frege conceives expressions and their referents to be arranged in linguistic and ontological hierarchies with saturated expressions (referents) located at the zeroth level. But rival linguistic and ontological hierarchies to Frege's can be constructed, which reverse the positions in the linguistic hierarchy of proper names and monadic concept-expressions, and correspondingly reverse the positions in the ontological hierarchy of their referents. This alternative strategy is connected with the Montague tradition in semantics. The relevant contributions of Ramsey and Dummett are discussed, answering the latter's objections to the viability of the alternative strategy to Frege's strategy (called the ‘anti-Fregean strategy’). Dummett's qualms are traced to a suspect conception of the relation between language and world, conflicting with the theoretical status of the reference relation and with linguistic idealism. In the remainder of the chapter, the so-called syntactic priority thesis is discussed, distinguishing it from linguistic idealism, and arguing that it is empty.Less
This chapter considers in more detail the charge of arbitrariness lodged against Frege's philosophical grammar in Chapter 3. Frege conceives expressions and their referents to be arranged in linguistic and ontological hierarchies with saturated expressions (referents) located at the zeroth level. But rival linguistic and ontological hierarchies to Frege's can be constructed, which reverse the positions in the linguistic hierarchy of proper names and monadic concept-expressions, and correspondingly reverse the positions in the ontological hierarchy of their referents. This alternative strategy is connected with the Montague tradition in semantics. The relevant contributions of Ramsey and Dummett are discussed, answering the latter's objections to the viability of the alternative strategy to Frege's strategy (called the ‘anti-Fregean strategy’). Dummett's qualms are traced to a suspect conception of the relation between language and world, conflicting with the theoretical status of the reference relation and with linguistic idealism. In the remainder of the chapter, the so-called syntactic priority thesis is discussed, distinguishing it from linguistic idealism, and arguing that it is empty.
