\u2018Wilfrid Sellars, Philosophical Semantics & Synthetic Necessary Truths\u2019 by Ken Westphal, Bosporus University, Department of Philosophy<\/p>\n
DATE: Friday, March 4
\nTIME: 16.40-18.00
\nPLACE: H-232<\/p>\n
Abstract:<\/p>\n
One feature of Sellars\u2019s \u2018philosophical\u2019 semantics (EAE \u00b6\u00b640, 67) concerns \u2018syn- thetic necessary truths\u2019 (SM 2:53, 3:18\u201319), a direct successor to C. I. Lewis\u2019s (MWO, 1929: 227\u20139, 254\u20138) relativised pragmatic a priori. Following Reichenbach, Lewis and Parrini, I argue (briefly) that the relativised synthetic a priori required for natural science cannot be merely linguistic (\u00a73). I then argue in detail that the relevant, relativised synthetic a priori cannot be merely meta-linguistic (\u00a7\u00a74\u20137). So doing identifies the key distinction between empiricism and pragmatism; the role of that distinction in contrasting Lewis\u2019s robust pragmatic realism in MWO(1929) to his empiricist relapse in AKV (1946); the key contrast between the robust pragmatic realism of Classical American pragmatism and meta-linguistically inclined neo-pragmatism; and shows that Brandom\u2019s (2015) inferentialist semantics is neo-pragmatist, not pragmatically realist; and that Sellars developed his philosophical semantics on behalf of robust pragmatic realism. Unlike Brandom, Sellars made his way back to robustly realist classical pragmatism by attending closely to Carnap\u2019s use of his formal semantics and its methodological links to Carnap\u2019s explication of conceptual \u2018explication\u2019. Carnap\u2019s explication of \u2018explication\u2019 reconnects to Lewis\u2019s pragmatic realist semantics in MWO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Wilfrid Sellars, Philosophical Semantics & Synthetic Necessary Truths\u2019 by Ken Westphal, Bosporus University, Department of Philosophy DATE: Friday, March 4 TIME: 16.40-18.00 PLACE: H-232 Abstract: One feature of Sellars\u2019s \u2018philosophical\u2019 semantics (EAE \u00b6\u00b640, 67) concerns \u2018syn- thetic necessary truths\u2019 (SM 2:53, 3:18\u201319), a direct successor to C. I. Lewis\u2019s (MWO, [\u2026] <\/p>\n