Thought and Reference: Meaning and Reference

According to Kent Bach there are three main domains of reference: (1) semantics, (2) pragmatics, and (3) epistemology. An example that Bach gives is proper names. Proper names would fall under the pragmatic and epistemic categories. Take the name 'John', we can use 'John' to refer to John the Baptist or John Smith. This is what makes it a pragmatic useage of the term 'John'. Also, which John that 'John' refers to seems to be an epistemic category. Hence, this seems to be the explanation that Bach would give as to why proper names fall under the (2) and (3) domains of reference.

To better understand philosophers of language from the 20th century Bach claims that we need to divide facts into three categories. First, there are facts about language. Second, there are facts about language use. Third, there are facts about the thoughts of language users.

For Bach there are two different types of reference, linguistic reference and speaker reference. This correspond with the semantics and pragmatics distinction. Pragmatics is concerned with communication, speaker meaning, and speech acts. Whereas semantic features of an utterance give the meaning of an utterance that a competent user of a language can understand about an utterance, apart from the context in which it was uttered. Semantics is concerned with types, pragmatics with tokens.

Reading Goals part 2: Philosophy of Language (well not entirely...)

In addition to my philosophy of religion/theology reading that I have mapped out over the next 14 months I am also planning on reading some analytic (or some prefer anglophone) philosophy. I am going to being with two books that are an in depth survey of 20th century philosophy up to 1975.

Book 1a - Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Centure, vol. 1: The Dawn of Analysis, by Scott Soames
Book 1b - Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, vol. 2: The Age of Meaning, by Scott Soames

Book 2 - Thought and Reference by Kent Bach.

Book 3 - Reference and Essence, by Nathan Salmon

Book 4 - Frege's Puzzle, by Nathan Salmon

Book 5 - Beyond Rigidity, by Scott Soames

Book 6 - Reference and Description, by Scott Soames

Book 7 - Descriptions and Beyond, edited by Marga Reimer and Anne Bezuidenhout

Book 8 - Theories of Vagueness, by Rosanna Keefe (note: if you would like to know what vagueness is ask my lovely wife, she can explain to anyone who is interested in vagueness what the sorites paradox is.)

Along with the nine books listed above I also plan on reading an assortment of philosophy articles concerned with philosophy of language and vagueness. We will see how that works out. Right now I am about 1/4 of the way through book 1a will post more on this when I finish...

Reading Goals - part 1: Philosophy of Religion & Theology

So, it is 14 months and counting until I will be in school again. So I have some major reading that I plan on doing between now and August of 07. So here is the reading that I plan on doing in philosophy of religion/philosophical theology. Upon the completion of a book I will post on here to keep all of my two loyal readers updated on my progress.

Book 1 - The Trinity by Saint Augustine

Book 2 - Summa Contra Gentiles book 4: Salvation, by Thomas Aquinas

Book 3 - Anselm of Canterbury - The Major Works, this is just the compilation of Anselm's philosophical/theological work. The Bishop of Canterbury

Book 4 - and this one is a monster - The City of God, by Augustine

In addition to the 4 books listed above, I am also going to read all of the Faith and Philosophy Journals from January 2002, to whatever is the most recent journal that I have by August 07. Faith and Philosophy is the journal put out by the Society of Christian Philosophers.