Against magnetism

Wolfgang Schwarz*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    38 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Magnetism in meta-semantics is the view that the meaning of our words is determined in part by their use and in part by the objective naturalness of candidate meanings. This hypothesis is commonly attributed to David Lewis, and has been put to philosophical work by Brian Weatherson, Ted Sider and others. I argue that there is no evidence that Lewis ever endorsed the view, and that his actual account of language reveals good reasons against it.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)17-36
    Number of pages20
    JournalAustralasian Journal of Philosophy
    Volume92
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2 Jan 2014

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