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The emperor's new 'knows'In Gerhard Preyer & Georg Peter (eds.), Contextualism in philosophy: knowledge, meaning, and truth, Oxford University Press. 2005.
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2Language, Logic, and FormIn Dale Jacquette (ed.), A Companion to Philosophical Logic, Blackwell. 2006.This chapter contains sections titled: Sentential Connectives Quantifiers and Quantified Noun Phrases Proper Names and Individual Constants Adjectives Adverbs and Events Utterance Modifiers Logical Form as Grammatical Form Summary.
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18Speech Acts and PragmaticsIn Michael Devitt & Richard Hanley (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language, Wiley-blackwell. 2006.This chapter contains sections titled: Performative Utterances Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary Acts Classifying Illocutionary Acts Communicative Speech Acts and Intentions Conversational Implicature and Impliciture Conventional Implicature The Semantic‐Pragmatic Distinction Applications of the Semantic‐Pragmatic Distinction.
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23Change in View: Principles of ReasoningPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 48 (4): 761-764. 1988.
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68Picoeconomics (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 55 (4): 981-983. 1995.There is a simple view of motivation on which desires are like pain-killers; they come in different strengths, and their strength determines their efficacy. That is, the stronger a desire the greater its motivational force and, when two desires conflict, the stronger one “wins out” over the weaker. This view makes it puzzling how anyone could ever exhibit “strength of will” and act on the weaker desire, even when it is a desire for something more highly valued than what is more strongly desired.…Read more
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Context DependenceIn Manuel García-Carpintero & Max Kölbel (eds.), The Continuum companion to the philosophy of language, Continuum International. 2012.
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Schiffer on Russell's Theory and Referential UsesIn Gary Ostertag (ed.), Meanings and Other Things: Themes From the Work of Stephen Schiffer, Oxford University Press. 2016.
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5Failed Reference and Feigned Reference: Much ado about NothingGrazer Philosophische Studien 26 (1): 359-374. 1985.Nothing can be said about a nonexistent object, but something can be said about the act of (unsuccessfully) attempting to refer to one or, as in fiction, of pretending to refer to one. Unsuccessful reference, whether by expressions or by speakers, can be explained straightforwardly within the context of the theory of speech acts and communication. As for fiction, there is nothing special semantically, as to either meaning or reference, about its language. And fictional discourse is just a distin…Read more
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The Semantics and Pragmatics of ReferenceIn Ernest Lepore & Barry C. Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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3Review of Fretheim & Gundel (1996): Reference and Referent Accessibility (review)Pragmatics and Cognition 6 (1-2): 335-338. 1998.
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118Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for RealismPhilosophy of Science 52 (3): 477-478. 1985.
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Drawing More Lines: Response to Depraetere and SalkieIn Raphael Salkie & Ilse Depraetere (eds.), Semantics and Pragmatics: Drawing a Line, Springer Verlag. 2016.
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961Linguistic Communication and Speech ActsMIT Press. 1979.a comprehensive, somewhat Gricean theory of speech acts, including an account of communicative intentions and inferences, a taxonomy of speech acts, and coverage of many topics in pragmatics
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1A Rationale for ReliabilismIn Sven Bernecker & Fred I. Dretske (eds.), Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology, Oxford University Press. 2000.
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35Burnham, Douglas and Ole Martin Skilleås. The Aesthetics of Wine. Malden, MA: Wiley‐Blackwell, 2012, ix + 227 pp., $119.95 cloth (review)Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71 (4): 388-389. 2013.
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94Sometimes a Great Notion: A Critical Notice of Mark Crimmins’Talk About BeliefsMind and Language 8 (3): 431-441. 1993.Anyone weary of endless philosophical debate on belief reports will find welcome relief in this book. Talking not just about belief talk but about belief itself, it offers much that is new, interesting, and subtle. The central thesis, though interestingly and subtly developed, is not exactly new. It is a version of the “hidden indexical theory” (HIT) of..
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78Review: Robert J. Stainton: Words and Thoughts: Subsentences, Ellipsis, and the Philosophy of Language (review)Mind 117 (467): 739-742. 2008.
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164Thought and referenceClarendon Press. 1987.Presenting a novel account of singular thought, a systematic application of recent work in the theory of speech acts, and a partial revival of Russell's analysis of singular terms, this book takes an original approach to the perennial problems of reference and singular terms by separating the underlying issues into different levels of analysis.
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119Failed Reference and Feigned ReferenceGrazer Philosophische Studien 25 (1): 359-374. 1985.Nothing can be said about a nonexistent object, but something can be said about the act of (unsuccessfully) attempting to refer to one or, as in fiction, of pretending to refer to one. Unsuccessful reference, whether by expressions or by speakers, can be explained straightforwardly within the context of the theory of speech acts and communication. As for fiction, there is nothing special semantically, as to either meaning or reference, about its language. And fictional discourse is just a distin…Read more
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169Quantification, qualification and context a reply to Stanley and SzabóMind and Language 15 (2-3). 2000.We hardly ever mean exactly what we say. I don’t mean that we generally speak figuratively or that we’re generally insincere. Rather, I mean that we generally speak loosely, omitting words that could have made what we meant more explicit and letting our audience fill in the gaps. Language works far more efficiently when we do that. Literalism can have its virtues, as when we’re drawing up a contract, programming a computer, or writing a philosophy paper, but we generally opt for efficiency over …Read more
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