Philosophical Essays, Volume 1:
Natural Language: What It Means and How We Use It
Scott Soames

Paper | February 2009 | $39.50 / £23.95
Cloth | February 2009 | $90.00 / £53.00
464 pp. | 6 x 9

Shopping Cart | Endorsements

These volumes bring together the most important essays written by one of the world's foremost philosophers of language. Scott Soames has selected thirty-one essays spanning nearly three decades of thinking about linguistic meaning and the philosophical significance of language. A judicious collection of old and new, these volumes include sixteen essays published in the 1980s and 1990s, nine published since 2000, and six new essays.

The essays in Volume 1 investigate what linguistic meaning is; how the meaning of a sentence is related to the use we make of it; what we should expect from empirical theories of the meaning of the languages we speak; and how a sound theoretical grasp of the intricate relationship between meaning and use can improve the interpretation of legal texts.

The essays in Volume 2 (forthcoming in spring 2009) illustrate the significance of linguistic concerns for a broad range of philosophical topics--including the relationship between language and thought; the objects of belief, assertion, and other propositional attitudes; the distinction between metaphysical and epistemic possibility; the nature of necessity, actuality, and possible worlds; the necessary a posteriori and the contingent a priori; truth, vagueness, and partial definition; and skepticism about meaning and mind.

These are essential volumes for anyone working on the philosophy of language.

Scott Soames is director of the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. His books include Reference and Description (Princeton), Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Volumes 1 and 2 (Princeton), Beyond Rigidity, and Understanding Truth.

Endorsements:

"Soames's work is of an exceptionally high quality, the selections made here are truly excellent, and the organization is well thought out. Having these papers available in this form is a great boon to scholars."--Stephen Neale, CUNY Graduate Center

"Since many of these important papers are relatively inaccessible, it is particularly useful to have them collected together, and Soames has done an excellent job selecting and arranging them. These two volumes are really terrific."--Alex Byrne, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Other Princeton books by Scott Soames:

• Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Volume 1: The Dawn of Analysis.
• Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Volume 2: The Age of Meaning.
• Reference and Description: The Case against Two-Dimensionalism.

Subject Area:

• Philosophy

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Paper: $39.50 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13681-3
Cloth: $90.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13680-6

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Paper: £23.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13681-3
Cloth: £53.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13680-6

Prices subject to change without notice

File created: 7/1/2008

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