AuthorVarzi, Achille C. author
TitleAn Essay in Universal Semantics [electronic resource] / by Achille C. Varzi
ImprintDordrecht : Springer Netherlands : Imprint: Springer, 1999
Connect tohttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9243-7
Descript XII, 146 p. online resource

SUMMARY

Like the journal TOPOl, the TOPOl Library is based on the assumption that philosophy is a lively, provocative, delightful activity, which constantly challenges our inherited habits, painstakingly elaborates on how things could be different, in other stories, in counterfactual situations, in alternative possible worlds. Whatever its ideology, whether with the intent of uncovering a truer structure of reality or of shooting our anxiety, of exposing myths or of following them through, the outcome of philosophical activity is always the destabilizing, unsettling generation of doubts, of objections, of criticisms. It follows that this activity is intrinsically a dialogue, that philosophy is first and foremost philosophical discussion, that it requires bringing out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to articulate one's approach, to make it richer, more thoughtful, more open to variation and play. And it follows that the spirit which one brings to this activity must be one of tolerance, of always suspecting one's own blindness and consequently looking with unbiased eye in every comer, without fearing to pass a (fallible) judgment on what is there but also without failing to show interest and respect


CONTENT

1. Foundations -- 2. Developments -- Concluding Remarks -- References


SUBJECT

  1. Philosophy
  2. Logic
  3. Language and languages -- Philosophy
  4. Mathematical logic
  5. Semantics
  6. Linguistics
  7. Philosophy
  8. Logic
  9. Philosophy of Language
  10. Mathematical Logic and Foundations
  11. Semantics
  12. Theoretical Linguistics