•  203
    Explanation by induction?
    Synthese 190 (3): 509-524. 2013.
    Philosophers of mathematics commonly distinguish between explanatory and non-explanatory proofs. An important subclass of mathematical proofs are proofs by induction. Are they explanatory? This paper addresses the question, based on general principles about explanation. First, a recent argument for a negative answer is discussed and rebutted. Second, a case is made for a qualified positive take on the issue.
  •  10
    Logical Form
    In Ernie Lepore & Kurt Ludwig (eds.), Blackwell Companion to Donald Davidson, Blackwell. 2013.
    Donald Davidson contributed to the discussion of logical form in two ways: by making specific suggestions on how to give the logical forms of certain natural language constructions, and by providing a general account of what logical form is. This chapter's foremost aim is to give a detailed picture of this general account. I introduce a notion of logical form as the form that matters in certain kinds of entailments, indicate why philosophers have taken an interest in such a notion, and develop c…Read more
  •  89
    Semantic Theories, Linguistic Essences, and Knowledge of Meaning
    with Nick Haverkamp
    Synthese 199 (5-6): 14459-14490. 2021.
    This paper argues, first, that the information problem poses a foundational challenge to mainstream semantics. It proposes, second, to address this problem by drawing on notions from Kit Fine’s essentialist framework. More specifically, it claims that the information problem can be avoided by strengthening standard truth theories, employing an operator expressing the notion of a relative constitutive semantic requirement. As a result, the paper proposes to construe semantic theories as theories …Read more
  •  26
    Zum semantischen Mehrwert mehrerer semantischer Werte (review)
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 68 (2): 313-320. 2020.
  •  68
    'Meaning and Truth' and 'Truth and Meaning'
    Dialectica 70 (2): 201-215. 2016.
    Donald Davidson suggested that, in attempting to give meaning theories, we should proceed via giving truth theories. For the programme of truth-theoretic semantics to be successful, two tasks need to be accomplished. First, it has to be shown that natural languages are actually amendable to truth theoretic treatment. The second task is to show how we can bridge the gap between a truth theory and a genuine meaning theory. This second task is necessitated by the simple fact that truth theories by …Read more
  • Propositionen
    In Markus Andreas Schrenk (ed.), Handbuch Metaphysik (German), Metzler. 2017.
  •  114
    Donald Davidson has claimed that for every logical truth 5 of a language L, a theory of meaning for L will entail that S is a logical truth of L. Jim Edwards has argued (2002) that this claim is false if we take 'entails' to mean 'has as a logical consequence. In this paper, I first show that, pace Edwards, Davidson's claim is correct even under this strong reading. I then discuss the argument given by Edwards and offer a diagnosis of where he went wrong.
  •  67
    Handlungssätze
    In Markus Rüther & Michael Kühler (eds.), Handbuch Handlungstheorie: Grundlagen, Kontexte, Perspektiven, J.b. Metzler. 2016.
  •  136
    Generics and ways of being normal
    Linguistics and Philosophy 40 (2): 101-118. 2017.
    This paper is concerned with the semantics of bare plural I-generics such as ‘Tigers are striped’, ‘Chickens lay eggs’, and ‘Kangaroos live in Australia’. In a series of recent papers, Bernhard Nickel has developed a comprehensive view of a certain class of bare plural I-generics, which he calls characterizing sentences :629–648, 2009. doi:10.1007/s10988-008-9049-7; Linguist Philos 33:479–512, 2010a. doi:10.1007/s10988-011-9087-4; Philos Impr 10:1–25, 2010b). Nickel’s ambitious proposal includes…Read more
  •  78
    Selected papers from the sections of the eighth international conference organized by the Society for Analytic Philosophy (GAP), Constance, Germany, September 17-20, 2012. The overall theme of the conference was "What may we believe? What ought we to do?", but the papers published here address a wide variety of questions from many fields of philosophy.
  •  1558
    Logical Form
    In Ernest Lepore & Kirk Ludwig (eds.), A Companion to Donald Davidson (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy), Wiley-blackwell. 2013.
    Donald Davidson contributed to the discussion of logical form in two ways. On the one hand, he made several influential suggestions on how to give the logical forms of certain constructions of natural language. His account of adverbial modification and so called action-sentences is nowadays, in some form or other, widely employed in linguistics (Harman (forthcoming) calls it "the standard view"). Davidson's approaches to indirect discourse and quotation, while not as influential, also still attr…Read more
  •  142
    Lepore and Ludwig on 'explicit meaning theories'
    Philosophical Studies 165 (3): 831-839. 2013.
    The fundamental problem proponents of truth conditional semantics must face is to specify what role a truth theory is supposed to play within a meaning theory. The most detailed proposal for tackling this problem is the account developed by Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig. However, as I will show in this paper, theories along the lines of Lepore and Ludwig do not suffice to put someone into the position to understand the objectlanguage. The fundamental problem of truth conditional semantics thus r…Read more