Semantic Relationism

Introduction

1. Coordination among Variables

A. The Desiderata

B. The Problem

C. The Contextualist Response

D. The Dismissive Response

E. The Instantial Approach

F. The Algebraic Approach

G. Relational Semantics for First-order Logic

2. Coordination within Language

A. Frege's Puzzle

B. Rejecting Compositionality

C. Semantic Fact

D. Closure

E. Referentialism Reconsidered

F. A Relational Semantics for Names

G. Transparency

3. Coordination within Thought

A. Intentional Coordination

B. Strict Co-representation

C. The Content of Thought

D. The Cognitive Puzzle

4. Coordination between Speakers

A. Kripke's Puzzle

B. Some Related Puzzles

C. A Response

D. A Solution

E. A Deeper Puzzle

F. A Deeper Solution

G. The Role of Variables in Belief Reports

H. Some Semantical Morals

Postscript: Further Work

Index

"With characteristic brilliance and rigor, Kit Fine advances a
radically new conception of semantic structure that casts light
from an unexpected direction on the nature of compositionality and
the theory of direct reference."

-Tim Williamson, Oxford University

"How can two sentences represent the world as being precisely
the same way, yet differ in meaning, and express propositions that
are rationally believed in different circumstances? Echoing themes
initially broached by such philosophers as Hilary Putnam and David
Kaplan, Kit Fine answers with a novel conception of semantics
uniting the two-sided connection of meaning with mind and world,
and culminating in an ingenious, representationalist theory
designed to incorporate contemporary Millianism while accommodating
traditional Fregean intuitions. A delight to read, the book will be
mined for its ideas and arguments for years to come."

-Scott Soames, University of Southern
California

Kit Fine is Silver Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at New York University, and specializes in metaphysics, logic, and philosophy of language. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies and is a former editor of the Journal of Symbolic Logic. He is the author of Reasoning with Arbitrary Objects (Blackwell, 1985), The Limits of Abstraction (2002) and Modality and Tense: Philosophical Papers (2005) and the co-author of Worlds, Times and Selves (1977). He has also written papers in ancient philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and economic theory, in addition to the papers in his central fields of interest.

K. Fine, New York University, USA