Context, Truth and Objectivity

The claim according to which there is a categorial gap between meaning and saying – between what sentences mean and what we say by using them on particular occasions – has come to be widely regarded as being exclusively a claim in the philosophy of language. The present essay collection takes a different approach to these issues. It seeks to explore the ways in which that claim – as defended first by ordinary language philosophy and, more recently, by various contextualist projects – is grounded in considerations that transcend the philosophy of language. More specifically, the volume seeks to explore how that claim is inextricably linked to considerations about the nature of truth and representation. It is thus part of the objective of this volume to rethink the current way of framing the debates on these issues. By framing the debate in terms of an opposition between "ideal language theorists" and their semanticist heirs on the one hand and "communication theorists" and their contextualist heirs on the other, one brackets important controversies and risks obscuring the undoubtedly very real oppositions that exist between different currents of thought.

Eduardo Marchesan is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Philosophy Department of the University of São Paulo. His main research interests are in the fields of philosophy of language and linguistics. He has published various articles in both these fields.

David Zapero is a Research Fellow of the Thyssen Foundation at the Philosophy Department of the University of Bonn. His interests lie in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, philosophy of language and moral psychology. His publications include various articles in these fields and a forthcoming book entitled La forme de la règle (2018).