Buch, Englisch, Band 5, 96 Seiten, Format (B × H): 175 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 376 g
Buch, Englisch, Band 5, 96 Seiten, Format (B × H): 175 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 376 g
Reihe: Conceptual Foundations of Language Science
ISBN: 978-3-96110-264-8
Verlag: Language Science Press
This book discusses the two main construals of the explanatory goals of semantic theories. The first, externalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of a hermeneutic and interpretive explanatory project. The second, internalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of the psychological mechanisms in virtue of which meanings are generated. It is argued that a fruitful scientific explanation is one that aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms in virtue of which the observable phenomena are made possible, and that a scientific semantics should be doing just that. If this is the case, then a scientific semantics is unlikely to be externalist, for reasons having to do with the subject matter and form of externalist theories. It is argued that semantics construed hermeneutically is nevertheless a valuable explanatory project.
