In this paper, I address a series of arguments recently put forward by Cappelen Review of Philosophy and Psychology 8(4): 743–762 (2017) to the effect that philosophers should not do formal semantics or be concerned with the “minutiae of natural language semantics”. He offers two paths for accessing his ideas. I argue that his arguments fail in favour of the first and cast some doubt on the second in so doing. I then proffer an alternative conception of why exactly philosophers should continue to do formal linguistics which includes both semantics and syntax.
CITATION STYLE
Nefdt, R. M. (2019). Why Philosophers should do Semantics (and a bit of syntax too): a Reply to Cappelen. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 10(1), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-018-0396-1
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