Semantic Challenges to Realism : Dummett and Putnam.

Intro -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I: DUMMETT'S SEMANTIC ANTI-REALISM -- 1 Dummett's Constraints - Meaning and Metaphysics -- 2 Dummett's Critique of Semantic Realism -- The Acquisition Argument -- The Manifestation Argument -- 3 Responses to the Negative Program -- Decidability -- Are There Any Undecidable Sentences? -- Other Sources of Undecidability? -- 4 Responses to the Positive Program -- Does an Anti-Realist Semantics Harmonize with the Constraints on Understanding? -- Realist Routes to Manifestation -- The Naivety of Both Realist and Anti-Realist Semantics -- PART II: PUTNAM'S INTERNAL REALISM -- 5 Portraits: Metaphysical and Internal Realisms -- 6 The Model-Theoretic Argument -- Against the "Just More Theory" Ploy -- Against the Very Idea of an Epistemically Ideal Theory -- 7 Brains in Vats -- The Argument -- Responses to the Argument -- The Vat Argument and Realism -- 8 The Argument from Equivalence -- Against Verisimilitude -- Against the Existential Claim -- Empirical Equivalence and the Model-Theoretic Argument -- A Second Argument from Equivalence -- Conclusion -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.

Although many philosophers espouse anti-realism, the only sustained arguments for the position are due to Michael Dummett and Hilary Putnam. Gardiner's unpretentious style and lucid organization make sense of Dummett's and Putnam's discourse.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.