The case for eliminativism about words
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10808944 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nick Tasker (0000-0003-4493-633X, University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 200 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 351-351 |
| Publication date | 2022-08-19 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Synthese (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-7857 • E-ISSN: 1573-0964 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11229-022-03846-0 |
| PMID | 35999946 |
| OpenAlex | W4292315721 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 27 |
Words are ubiquitous and familiar, and the concept of a word features both in common-sense ways of understanding the world, and in more theoretical discourse. Nonetheless, it has been repeatedly argued that there is no such thing as words. In this paper, I will set out a range of arguments for eliminativism about words, and indicate the most promising responses. I begin by considering an eliminativist argument based on the alleged mind-dependency of words, before turning to two challenges arising from linguistic theory in the Chomskian tradition. The first of these is issued by Rey in a number of places, including in his recent book (Rey, 2020). The second is Collins’s ( 2010, 2021a) argument based on the alleged explanatory redundancy of words. I will also consider an eliminativist challenge based on the difficulty of providing existence and persistence conditions for words. One general lesson which emerges is that these eliminativist arguments, if they work at all, could be turned against a whole swathe of non-linguistic objects; in other words, the case for eliminativism about words is no stronger than the case for eliminativism about ordinary objects in general
Argument (complex analysis) · Eliminative materialism · Epistemology · Linguistics · Metaphysics · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of science · Redundancy (engineering) · Computer Science · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Psychology
Ignorance of Language
On Nature and Language
Intention, history, and artifact concepts
Words
Experimental Philosophy of Language
Troubles with Rey's linguistic Eliminativism
The Psychology of Language
Three Kinds of Social Kinds
Realism and Human Kinds
New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind
Expressions and their Representations
Understanding as Knowledge of Meaning
The Philosophy of Social Science
Mind-Dependent Kinds
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |