In the wake of works by Kripke, Putnam and others, a whole new approach to philosophy of language has opened up which has come to be called the new theory of reference. Alan Berger's contributions to this approach significantly alter the shape of the Kripke-Putnam framework. He first extends and refines a theory of reference transmission, providing a novel theory of reference change; he then presents a formal semantics for sentences containing anaphoric terms.The theory of reference change is based on a distinction between an epistemic and a semantic style of rigid designation. It preserves the historical chain view of the new theory of reference, while permitting a rigid designator to have a referent different from the one it had when it was introduced. Berger applies the theory to the problem of reference change in the case of Newtonian mass and Relativistic mass.Anaphoric phenomena in general have never before been treated within the Kripke-Putnam framework; Berger's analysis of anaphora offers the first semantics for a sentence containing an anaphoric term and shows, for example, that Kaplan's work on demonstratives is inadequate to treat anaphoric pronouns. Extending the treatment of anaphora, Berger presents a formal semantics for complex pronominalization and plural pronouns, a semantics that permits intersentential binding in first-order quantification theory.Berger applies this approach to various longstanding problems in philosophy, such as negative existentials, intentional identity, and semantic content of certain rigid designator terms.Alan Berger is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Brandeis University. A BradfordBook.
- ISBN10 0262022745
- ISBN13 9780262022743
- Publish Date 1 December 1989
- Publish Status Unknown
- Publish Country US
- Publisher MIT Press Ltd
- Imprint MIT Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 176
- Language English