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Question posted on February 19, 2015; no responses
I guess philosophers distinguish "sentence meaning" (what certain abstract sequences of words mean) and "speaker's meaning" (what some speaker means when he or she says something). Aren't there other kinds of meaning? My main concern is "utterance meaning", that is,...
Language Show

Question posted on February 9, 2015; 2 responses
Suppose I have never played a game of chess. If I now make the claim that I've won all the games of chess I've ever played, is that claim true, false, or undefined? A group of friends had...
Language, Logic Show

Question posted on February 9, 2015; 1 response
Just what is a definition? Are definitions ever proved or are they all man made? If they are man made, what good are they?...
Language Show

Question posted on February 9, 2015; no responses
Are we corrupting the term "ideology" by using it to describe nearly any movement or worldview, such as the beliefs that motivate the Islamic State or other terrorist groups?. Clearly, there is no argument based on reason to support their...
Language Show

Question posted on December 30, 2014; 1 response
The standard way of thinking about 'mental disorders' goes like this: Take some phenomena and think of a name that stands for all phenomena together. So far nothing wrong. But then it happens, the given name is being crowned as cause...
Language Show

Question posted on December 18, 2014; 1 response
My reductionist friend argues that rice noodles are not noodles since the very first noodles ever made and the noodles most commonly eaten around the world are made from wheat by definition. That is to say, the term "rice noodles"...
Language Show

Question posted on November 20, 2014; 1 response
The question comes out of an thought experiment which goes like this: Suppose i ask you to choose a random word from English dictionary. And I tell you to find its definition. Now the definition of the word will also...
Language, Science Show

Question posted on June 5, 2014; 1 response
What is the essential relationship between rules of grammar and a living language? Is it primarily descriptive or prescriptive? I am fluent in 3 languages, and it seems to me that native speakers, especially in Chinese, rarely know much about...
Language Show

Question posted on April 17, 2014; 1 response
Reading Wikipedia and a bit of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, I learn that, for most philosophers today, the distinction betweem analytic and synthetic truths or falsities is no longer acceptable. For them, there are no analytic truths. This rejection...
Language Show

Question posted on February 23, 2014; 1 response
I guess some people call almost everything "a language". Is music a language? Is mathematics a language? I really think they aren't, but have no idea on how to explain it. Thank you....
Language Show

Question posted on December 19, 2013; 1 response
There was a question recently about whether "language" was necessary for "thought" and no one mentioned music! if I "hear" a tune running through my head, is that "language" and is that "thought"?...
Language, Music Show

Question posted on November 28, 2013; 2 responses
Why do so many scholars and intellectuals think that language is necessary for thought? ...
Language, Mind Show

Question posted on October 3, 2013; 2 responses
Suppose that all the languages in the world have the same number of vocabulary. Is it possible that one language is more superior than another in the way it represents the world, even if they have the same number of...
Language Show

Question posted on September 19, 2013; 1 response
Are the intentions of a speaker or writer relevant to determining the meaning of what they say or write? It seems common to suppose so. For example, people will often try to argue for an interpretation of a book by...
Language, Mind Show

Question posted on September 12, 2013; 2 responses
Can translations ever capture the true essence of the original word? More abstract concepts or ideas such as love, anger, or honor are fundamentally built on cultural and social understanding and context, which may be difficult to be aptly understood...
Language Show

Question posted on September 12, 2013; 1 response
Is it reasonable to claim that a particular language is more superior than another in terms of the way it captures reality, for instance, by having a wider vocabulary than others? ...
Language Show

Question posted on August 29, 2013; 1 response
Are definitions always human made? If so, do they not exist on non-human planets?...
Language Show

Question posted on July 25, 2013; 1 response
Is the statement, "the only rule is that there are no rules" the same in meaning as "there are no rules"? Why would a person ever necessarily use the first statement?...
Language Show

Question posted on July 11, 2013; 2 responses
Why are counterfactual claims taken seriously by philosophers? Aren't they just an imaginative way of thinking and talking? For example, why is a counterfactual of the form "If it had been the case that A, then it would...
Language Show

Question posted on June 13, 2013; 1 response
Wikipedia has an interesting (for me, at least) definition of question: "A question is a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or the request made using such an expression." This means that there are two senses of...
Language Show




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