A Companion to the Philosophy of Language, 2 Volume Set (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy)

“Providing up-to-date, in-depth coverage of the central question, and written and edited by some of the foremost practitioners in the field, this timely new edition will no doubt be a go-to reference for anyone with a serious interest in the philosophy of language.”

Kathrin Glüer-Pagin, Stockholm University

Now published in two volumes, the second edition of the best-selling Companion to the Philosophy of Language provides a complete survey of contemporary philosophy of language. The Companion has been greatly extended and now includes a monumental 17 new essays – with topics chosen by the editors, who curated suggestions from current contributors – and almost all of the 25 original chapters have been updated to take account of recent developments in the field.

In addition to providing a synoptic view of the key issues, figures, concepts, and debates, each essay introduces new and original contributions to ongoing debates, as well as addressing a number of new areas of interest, including two-dimensional semantics, modality and epistemic modals, and semantic relationism. The extended “state-of-the-art” chapter format allows the authors, all of whom are internationally eminent scholars in the field, to incorporate original research to a far greater degree than competitor volumes. Unrivaled in scope, this volume represents the best contemporary critical thinking relating to the philosophy of language.

Bob Hale is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield. He is a member of the editorial board of Philosophia Mathematica, and is author of Abstract Objects (Blackwell, 1987) and Necessary Beings (2013; revised 2nd edn, 2015); co-editor of Reading Putnam (with Peter Clark; Blackwell, 1994), The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy of Language (with Crispin Wright; Blackwell, 1997), and Modality: Metaphysics, Logic, and Epistemology (with Aviv Hoffmann, 2010); and co-author of The Reason's Proper Study (with Crispin Wright, 2001).

Crispin Wright is Professor of Philosophy at New York University and Professor of Philosophical Research at the University of Stirling. His books include Wittgenstein on the Foundations of Mathematics (1980), Frege's Conception of Numbers as Objects (1983), Truth and Objectivity (1992), Realism, Meaning and Truth (2nd edn, 1993), The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy of Language (with Bob Hale, Blackwell, 1997), The Reason's Proper Study (with Bob Hale, 2001), Rails to Infinity (2001), and Saving the Differences (2003).

Alexander Miller is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His publications include Contemporary Metaethics: An Introduction Revised and Expanded (2nd edn, 2013), Philosophy of Language Revised and Expanded (2nd edn, 2007), and Rule-Following and Meaning (with Crispin Wright, 2002).