Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:23:30.512Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Believing in Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Susan Dwyer  and
Paul M. Pietroski
Susan Dwyer
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, McGill University
Paul M. Pietroski
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, McGill University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We propose that the generalizations of linguistic theory serve to ascribe beliefs to humans. Ordinary speakers would explicitly (and sincerely) deny having these rather esoteric beliefs about language—e.g., the belief that an anaphor must be bound in its governing category. Such ascriptions can also seem problematic in light of certain theoretical considerations having to do with concept possession, revisability, and so on. Nonetheless, we argue that ordinary speakers believe the propositions expressed by certain sentences of linguistic theory, and that linguistics can therefore teach us something about belief as well as language. Rather than insisting that ordinary speakers lack the linguistic beliefs in question, philosophers should try to show how these empirically motivated belief ascriptions can be correct. We argue that Stalnaker's (1984) “pragmatic” account—according to which beliefs are dispositions, and propositions are sets of possible worlds—does just this. Moreover, our construal of explanation in linguistics motivates (and helps provide) responses to two difficulties for the pragmatic account of belief: the phenomenon of opacity, and the so-called problem of deduction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 338 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

We would like to thank Steven Davis, Michael Devitt, and Robert Stainton for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We are especially grateful to Sylvain Bromberger. This paper was written with the assistance of grants from SSHRCC and FCAR.

‡

Send reprint requests to the authors, Department of Philosophy, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T7.

References

Aoun, M. & Sportiche, D. (1983), “On the Formal Theory of Government”, Linguistic Review 3:211–236.Google Scholar
Bromberger, S. (1989), “Types and Tokens in Linguistics”, in George, A. (ed.), Reflections on Chomsky. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 58–89.Google Scholar
Burge, T. (1974), “Demonstrative Constructions, Reference, and Truth”, Journal of Philosophy 71:205–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1980), Rules and Representations. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981), Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1984), Knowledge of Language. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1986), Barriers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
D'Agostino, F. (1986), Chomsky's System of Ideas. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. (1975), “Thought and Talk”, in Guttenplan, S. (ed.), Mind and Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 7–24.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. (1986), “A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs”, in LePore 1986, pp. 433–446.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (1971), “Intentional Systems”, Journal of Philosophy 68:87–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devitt, M. & Sterelny, K. (1989), “Linguistics: What's Wrong With ‘The Right View’ ”, in Tomberlin, J. (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives (Vol. 3) Philosophy of Mind and Action Theory. Atascadero, CA: Ridgeview, pp. 497–531.Google Scholar
Dwyer, S. (1996), “Dispositions to Explain” in Cohen, R. S. & Marion, M. (eds.), Quebec Studies in the Philosophy of Science II. Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 247–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. (1981), “Semantic Theory and Tacit Knowledge”, in Holtzman, S. & Leich, C. (eds.), Wittgenstein: To Follow a Rule. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 118–137.Google Scholar
Evans, G. (1982), The Varieties of Reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1983), The Modularity of Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higginbotham, J. (1986), “Linguistic Theory and Davidson's Program in Semantics”, in LePore 1986, pp. 29–48.Google Scholar
Kripke, S. (1979), “A Puzzle About Belief”, in Margalit, A. (ed.), Meaning and Use. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 239–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, R. and Ludlow, P. (1993), “Interpreted Logical Forms”, Synthese 95: 305–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LePore, E. (ed) (1986), Truth and Interpretation. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, D. (1991), How to Set Parameters. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Pietroski, P. (1993), “Possible Worlds, Syntax, and Opacity”, Analysis 53: 270–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietroski, P. (1994a), “A Defense of Derangement”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24: 95–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietroski, P. (1994b), “Mental Causation for Dualists”, Mind and Language 9: 336–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietroski, P. and Rey, G. (1995), “When Other Things Aren't Equal”, Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 46: 81–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, J. (1990), “Consciousness, Explanatory Inversion, and Cognitive Science”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13: 585–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stalnaker, R. (1984), Inquiry. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Stich, S. (1971), “What Every Speaker Knows”, The Philosophical Review 80: 476–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stich, S. (1978), “Beliefs and Subdoxastic States”, Philosophy of Science 45:499–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar