Alfred Tarski: Philosophy of Language and Logic

By Douglas Patterson

Book Overview

Alfred Tarski is remembered in philosophy for work in the 1930s that laid the foundations for the rigorous study of semantics. Today the study of Tarski's work of this period is the subject of many disputes. Did Tarski think that there was one concept of truth, or many? Does Tarski's treatment of semantic concepts imply that semantic truths are logical or necessary truths? Does Tarski's conception of logical consequence adequately represent the ordinary notion of one thing's following from another? Alfred Tarski: Philosophy of Language and Logic argues that these questions can best be answered by understanding that Tarski conceived of his work at the time as a contribution to a view that he called 'Intuitionistic Formalism'. The book explains this view in terms of the views of Tarski's teachers, in particular as found in the work of Stanislaw Lesniewski and Tadeusz Kotarbinski. These figures conceived of meaning not in terms of the semantic relation of words to the world, but in terms of the expression of thoughts. Questions about Tarski's work are then addressed by applying this reading of Tarski. Throughout the book, close attention is paid both to the development of Tarski's work through the period and to the details of the expression of his ideas in Polish, French and German. Book jacket.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0230221211
• ISBN13: 9780230221215
• Release Date: February 2012
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.6"