SHINE AND POVERTY OF SEMANTIC PLATONISM

Nekhaev A. V.

DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2022-3-118-126

Information About Author:

Andrei V. Nekhaev, Tomsk Scientific Center, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation. University of Tyumen, Russian Federation. Omsk State Technical University, Russian Federation. E-mail: a.v.nekhaev@utmn.ru

The article presents criticism of Katz’s proto-theory. Based on the principles of semantic Platonism, he offers a new understanding of the relationship between sense and reference. However, his account faces three strong objections: against non-causal ways of accessing abstract Platonic entities (Benacerraf–Field–Cheyne), against intuition as the faculty to a priori knowledge of grammar facts (Horwich–Cheyne–Oliver), and against the medial status of finite intensionals in matters for fixing the reference of linguistic expressions (Kripke–Boghossian–Kush). Without convincing answers to these objections, Katz’s proto-theory cannot be considered as a fit competitor to naturalistic theories of language.

Keywords: Katz, sense, reference, abstract object, semantic Platonism

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Issue: 3, 2022

Series of issue: Issue 3

Rubric: ARTICLES. LANGUAGE MEANING AND LINGUISTIC REALISM IN CONTEXT OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY

Pages: 118 — 126

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