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20Norms of Word Meaning LitigationProtoSociology 31 88-112. 2014.In this paper I examine cases in which we attach different meanings to words and in which we litigate or argue about the best way of defining the term in dispute. I reject the idea that this is just a matter of imposing our will on our interlocutors – I think that the process of litigation is normative. To some extent recent work in the theory of argumentation has shed considerable light on this process, but we will need to retrofit that work for the kinds of considerations we are engaged with h…Read more
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201Indefinite descriptions: In defense of Russell (review)Linguistics and Philosophy 14 (2). 1991.
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67Having Linguistic Rules and Knowing Linguistic FactsThe Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication 5 8'Knowledge' doesn't correctly describe our relation to linguistic rules. It is too thick a notion. On the other hand, 'cognize', without further elaboration, is too thin a notion, which is to say that it is too thin to play a role in a competence theory. One advantage of the term 'knowledge'-and presumably Chomsky's original motivation for using it-is that knowledge would play the right kind of role in a competence theory: Our competence would consist in a body of knowledge which we have and whi…Read more
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56Incorporation and Alleged Epistemic ModalsTopoi 36 (1): 155-159. 2017.Part of what makes working with modals such a tricky business is that apparent modal forms are deployed in all sorts of ways in language. In this paper I explore an interesting example of an apparent modal—the Blofeld case—which was introduced by Gilles and von Fintel as part of their argument against context of assessment accounts of epistemic modals. I argue that the example is subtle, and that the apparent modal may not be an epistemic modal at all—it could be a scalar modifier that merges or…Read more
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901From Sherlock and buffy to klingon and norrathian platinum pieces: Pretense, contextalism, and the myth of fictionPhilosophical Issues 16 (1). 2006.
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4Derivare conseguenze metafisiche. Da una teoria davidsoniana del significatoRivista di Estetica 32 (32): 21-40. 2006.‘Drawing Metaphysical Consequences from a T-theory’. Pubblicato come quarto capitolo di Semantics, Tense, and Time: An Essay in the Metaphysics of Natural Language, Cambridge, Massachussetts, MIT Press, 1999. Per gentile concessione dell’autore e dell’editore. Traduzione italiana di Carlotta Pavese. L’idea che lo studio del linguaggio possa illuminare certe questioni metafisiche ha radici lontane nella storia della filosofia. Questa assunzione sembra già operante ai tempi del filosofo pre-soc...
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677Disagreement and deference: Is diversity of opinion a precondition for thought?Philosophical Perspectives 17 (1). 2003.
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18Review of Ken Taylor's Referring to the World (review)Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 66 (5): 641-649. 2023.Kenneth Taylor's book, Referring to the World: An Opinionated Introduction to the Theory of Reference, is an exploration of the cognitive resources required to refer to things in the external world. According to Taylor, there is a lot going on. One needs the appropriate internal syntactic objects (which are, on Taylor's view, the product of discursive activity), plus the appropriate internal conceptions, plus of course, the things in the external world that are causally related to our sense orga…Read more
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Externalism, logical form and linguistic intentionsIn Alex Barber (ed.), Epistemology of language, Oxford University Press. 2003.
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167Cognitive Dynamics: Red Queen Semantics Versus the Story of OBelgrade Philosophical Annual 35 (2): 53-67. 2022.It appears that indexicals must have fine-grained senses for us to explain things involving human action and emotions, and we typically identify these different senses with different modes of expression. On the other hand, we also express the very same thought in very different ways. The first problem is the problem of cognitive significance. The second problem is what Branquinho (1999) has called the problem of cognitive dynamics. The question is how we can solve both of those problems at the s…Read more
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962Language, Form, and Logic: In Pursuit of Natural Logic's Holy GrailOxford University Press. 2022.This book explores the idea that all of logic can be reduced to two very simple rules that are sensitive to logical polarity. The authors show that this idea has profound consequences for our understanding of the nature of human inferential capacities, and for some of the key issues in contemporary linguistics.
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21Interperspectival ContentOxford University Press. 2019.We often find ourselves communicating from radically different perspectives on the world. In this new book Ludlow explains how we successfully communicate across some radically diverse perspectival positions, including diverse temporal, spatial and personal positions, through our use of cognitive dynamics.
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71Contextualism, Multi‐Tasking, and Third‐Person Knowledge Reports: A Note on Keith DeRose’s The Case for Contextualism1Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 84 (3): 686-692. 2012.
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The Syntax and Semantics of Referential Attitude ReportsDissertation, Columbia University. 1985.This thesis is divided into two parts. Part I consists of a discussion of how a Davidsonian semantic theory might be enriched by some of the resources of modern linguistic theory. Two chapters are found in this part of the dissertation. Chapter 1 sets up the general theoretical framework, discussing the Davidsonian program and showing how the task of semantic theory is to define a truth predicate off of the LF representations of natural language sentences. Chapter 2 sketches the shape that such …Read more
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3059The Philosophy of Generative LinguisticsOxford University Press. 2011.Peter Ludlow presents the first book on the philosophy of generative linguistics, including both Chomsky's government and binding theory and his minimalist ...
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1549Living Words: Meaning Underdetermination and the Dynamic LexiconOxford University Press. 2014.Peter Ludlow shows how word meanings are much more dynamic than we might have supposed, and explores how they are modulated even during everyday conversation. The resulting view is radical, and has far-reaching consequences for our political and legal discourse, and for enduring puzzles in the foundations of semantics, epistemology, and logic.
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29Externalism and Self-Knowledge (edited book)Center for the Study of Language and Inf. 1998.One of the most provocative projects in recent analytic philosophy has been the development of the doctrine of externalism, or, as it is often called, anti-individualism. While there is no agreement as to whether externalism is true or not, a number of recent investigations have begun to explore the question of what follows if it is true. One of the most interesting of these investigations thus far has been the question of whether externalism has consequences for the doctrine that we have author…Read more
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82Readings in the Philosophy of Language (edited book)MIT Press. 1997.A central theme of this collection is that the philosophy of language, at least a core portion of it, has matured to the point where it is now being spun off ...
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44In this book Ludlow uses the metaphysics of time as a case study and focuses on the dispute between A-theorists and B-theorists about the nature of time.
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161Externalism, logical form, and linguistic intentionsIn Alex Barber (ed.), Epistemology of Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 399--414. 2003.