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oapen-20.500.12657-469332023-01-31T18:47:43Z Language and scientific explanation Asoulin, Eran Language Arts & Disciplines Linguistics Biography & Autobiography bic Book Industry Communication::C Language::CF linguistics bic Book Industry Communication::B Biography & True Stories::BG Biography: general This book discusses the two main construals of the explanatory goals of semantic theories. The first, externalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of a hermeneutic and interpretive explanatory project. The second, internalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of the psychological mechanisms in virtue of which meanings are generated. It is argued that a fruitful scientific explanation is one that aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms in virtue of which the observable phenomena are made possible, and that a scientific semantics should be doing just that. If this is the case, then a scientific semantics is unlikely to be externalist, for reasons having to do with the subject matter and form of externalist theories. It is argued that semantics construed hermeneutically is nevertheless a valuable explanatory project. 2021-02-24T04:31:07Z 2021-02-24T04:31:07Z 2020 book 9783961102631 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/46933 eng application/pdf n/a external_content.pdf Language Science Press Language Science Press https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3894134 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3894134 0bad921f-3055-43b9-a9f1-ea5b2d949173 9783961102631 Knowledge Unlatched (KU) Language Science Press open access
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This book discusses the two main construals of the explanatory goals of semantic theories. The first, externalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of a hermeneutic and interpretive explanatory project. The second, internalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of the psychological mechanisms in virtue of which meanings are generated. It is argued that a fruitful scientific explanation is one that aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms in virtue of which the observable phenomena are made possible, and that a scientific semantics should be doing just that. If this is the case, then a scientific semantics is unlikely to be externalist, for reasons having to do with the subject matter and form of externalist theories. It is argued that semantics construed hermeneutically is nevertheless a valuable explanatory project.
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