PROBLEMS OF SEMANTICS

Transcription

1 PROBLEMS OF SEMANTICS

2 BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE EDITED BY ROBERT S. COHEN AND MARX W. WARTOFSKY VOLUME 66

3 LADISLA V TONDL PROBLEMS OF SEMANTICS A Contribution to the Analysis of the Language of Science Translated from the Czech by David Short D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY DORDRECHT : HOLLAND / BOSTON: U. S. A. LONDON : ENGLAND

4 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Tondl, Ladislav. Problems of semantics. (Boston studies in the philosophy of science; v.66). Translation of Problemy semantiky. Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Semantics (Philosophy) 2. Languages Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series. Q174. B67 vol. 66 [B840] 50ls ISBN-I3: e-isbn-i3: DOl: / Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box 17,3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Boston Inc., Lincoln Building, 160 Old Derby Street, Hingham, MA 02043, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland. D. Reidel Publishing Company is a member of the Kluwer Group. Original title Problemy Semantiky All Rights Reserved Original edition copyright Ladislav Tondl 1966 Enlarged English edition copyright 1981 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland Soflcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 198 I No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner

5 EDITORIAL PREFACE Ladislav Tondl's insightful investigations into the language of the sciences bear directly upon some decisive points of confrontation in modern philosophy of science and of language itself. In the decade since his Scientific Procedures was published in English (Boston Studies 11), Dr Tondl has enlarged his original monograph of 1966 on the promise, problems and achievements of modern semantics: the main topic of his later work has been semantic information theory. A Russian translation, considerably expanded as a second edition, was published in 1975 (Moscow, Progress Publishers) with an appreciative critical commentary, in the form of a conclusion, by Professor Avenir I. Uemov of Odessa. Indeed many Soviet studies in the problems of the semantics of science show the same sort of philosophical curiosity about the relationship of meanings in scientific language to procedures in scientific epistemology that characterizes Tondl's work, as in the work of Mirislav Popovich (Kiev) and Vadirn Sadovsky (Moscow) and their colleagues. But we know that interest in these matters is world-wide, ranging from such classical topics as sense and denotation, empiricist reduction, vagueness and denotational opacity, to the new and equally exciting topics of the semantics of non-unique preference choices, the nuances of informational synonymity, and the semantics of a picture shape (so briefly but beautifully sketched in Tondl's dense and promising last chapter). We are pleased to have had Tondl's kind cooperation in producing this English edition, actually a third edition, of his research about semantics. * * Once again we note with thanks the intelligent and graceful work of the translator of our two Tondl books, Mr David Short of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London. Center for the Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University ROBERT S. COHEN MARX W. WARTOFSKY June 1981

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL PREFACE FOREWORD v xiii I. THE SEMANTIC PROBLEM -SOURCES AND THEMES II. THE CONCEPT OF SEMANTICS AND PREREQUISITES FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF SEMANTIC PROBLEMS The Concepts of Object Language and Metalanguage The Semantic Level of Analysis and its Relations to the Syntactic and Pragmatic Levels 15 III. SEMANTIC CONCEPTS Semantic Concepts and their Relations in Common Parlance 31 A. Express, state that 31 B. Signify 35 C. Denote 41 D. Represent Semantic Concepts in Formalised Languages 43 A. The Concept ofa Formalised Language 43 B. The Interpretation of a Formalised Language 47 C. The Introduction of Semantic Concepts by Definition 50 D. The Axiomatic Introduction of Semantic Concepts 57 IV. THE SEMANTICS OF LOGICAL CONCEPTS Problems of L-Semantics 62 A. The Introduction of L-Concepts as Non-Defined Terms 64 B. The Concepts of 'Logical Range' and 'State Description' 66 C. The Concepts of 'Logical Content' and 'Semantic Information' 74 D. Meaning Postulates 83 vii

7 Vlll T ABLE OF CONTENTS 2. The Semantics of Logical Concepts on the Basis of the Concept of Interpretation 91 A. The Concepts of Model and Interpretation 93 B. The Most Important Definitions of Logical Semantic Concepts on the Basis of 'Interpretation' 97 C. The Concept of 'Translation' 100 V. SENSE AND DENOTATION 103 I. Frege's Conception of Sense and Denotation 103 A. Sense, Denotation and the Identity of Names 103 B. The Concept of 'Name' 108 C. Frege's Extension of the Semantic Characterisation of Names The Theory of Descriptions 114 A. The Concept of Denoting Phrase 115 B. The Differentiation of Descriptions 117 C. Individual Descriptions and Statement Functions The Method of Extension and Intension 122 A. The Concepts of 'Class' and 'Property' 123 B. The Concepts of 'Extension' and 'Intension' 128 C. Extensional and Intensional Context 134 D A Possible Amplification of the Method of Extension and Intension The Problem of Naming 143 A. The Name Relation 143 B. Antinomies of the Name Relation Synonymity 151 A. The Concept of 'The Same Meaning' 151 B. Synonymity, Intension and Intensional Isomorphism 155 C. Synonymity, Pragmatic Intension and Pragmatic Criteria 158 VI. THE CRITERION OF SENSE The Formulation of the Problem 166 A. Conceptions of a Criterion of Sense 166 B. The Criterion of Sense and the Problem of Linguistic and Sense Intension The Operationist Criterion of Sense 170 A. Einstein's Definition of Simultaneity and the Operationist Criterion of Sense 171

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix B. Critical Comments on the Operationist Criterion of Sense The Verifiability Criterion of Sense 177 A. Motives for the Original Version of the Verifiability Criterion 177 B. Different Degrees of the Verifiability Criterion 183 C. The Logical Nature of the Verifiability Criterion The Translatability Criterion of Sense 187 A. The Concept of 'Having a Sense' as a Primitive Concept of the Semantic Metalanguage 187 B. Pragmatic Limitations of the Translatability Criterion 189 C. The Concept of 'Having a Sense' as a Many-Place Predicate Sense and the Empirical 194 A. The Concept of 'Empirical Predicates' 194 B. Dispositional Predicates 'Theoretical Concepts' and the Relativity of the Empirical Starting Point 202 A. The Problem of Scientific Empiricism 202 B. The Admissibility of Theoretical Concepts 208 C. Ways of Interpreting Theoretical Concepts Problems of Sense and Reduction Procedures 217 A. A Critique of Empiricist Reductionism 217 B. The Ontological Aspect of Reduction; the Theory of Levels 220 C. The Semantic and Pragmatic Aspects of Reduction 224 VII. VAGUENESS Vagueness and the Un-Sharpness of Boundaries 229 A. Vagueness and the Empirical 230 B. Vagueness and Theoretical Concepts and Constructions 232 C. Vagueness and the So-Called Fringe Sources of Vagueness and Ways of Analysing Vagueness 235 A. The Pragmatic Aspects of Vagueness 235 B. The Semantic Aspects of Vagueness Vagueness, Ambiguity and Denotational Opacity 242 A. Ambiguity 242 B. Denotational Opacity 243 C. Extremes and Graduated Differences 244

9 x T ABLE OF CONTENTS VIII. SEMANTICS AND SOME PROBLEMS OF ONTOLOGY Semantics and Ontic Decision 247 A. The Use of Terms and Ontic Commitments 248 B. Linguistic Framework and So-Called External and Internal Questions Nominalism, Platonism and Semantics 255 A. The Reification of Abstract Entities and the Problem of Nominalism 255 B. 'Praeter Necessitatem' 257 C. The Problem of Similarity and Identity Analytical and Synthetic Aspects in the Language of Science 265 A. The Traditional Problems and Tasks of Semantics 265 B. Degrees of Analyticity 267 C. Some Methodological Problems 270 IX. AN OUTLINE OF THE EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY IN TERMS OF SEMANTIC INFORMA TION The Scope for Evaluating Scientific Results Brillouin's Attempt at an Informational Evaluation of Scientific Laws Linguistic Devices in Tasks of the Systematising Type The Concept of 'Decision Base' and the Evaluation of a Decision Base The Relevance of A Posteriori Data Evaluation of the Goal Complex and the Concept of 'Epistemic Gain' 298 X. THE SEMANTICS OF PREFERENCE ATTITUDES 304 I. The Role of Preference and Preference Ordering The Comparability Principle as a Presupposition for the Construction of a Preference System Preferences of Things and Preferences of States of Affairs Preference 'Ceteris Paribus' The Concept of 'Preferable States of Affairs' as a Qualitative Concept Preference as a Propositional Attitude 321 Conclusions 323

10 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi XI. THE PROBLEM OF INFORMATIONAL SYNONYMITY The Traditional (Leibnizian) Criterion of Identity and the Problem of Semantic Identification The 'Salva Veritate' Criterion The Criterion of 'Salva Relatione' and the Concept of 'Informational Synonymity' Informational Relevance and the Concept of 'Strict Informational Synonymity' 335 XII. AN OUTLINE OF THE SEMANTIC EVALUATION OF GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION 338 I. Introductory Remarks Graphic Communication The Semantics of a Picture Shape Informational Synonymity and the Informational Evaluation of a Picture Shape Informational Synonymity and the Time Factor 350 NOTES 354 REFERENCES 379 INDEX OF NAMES 386 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 388

11 FOREWORD TO THE CZECH EDITION The original version of this work was a course of lectures that I gave at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in , along with some lectures delivered at the instigation of the Department of Logic and its then head, Professor Otakar Zich. I am beholden to Professor Zich for the invaluable advice and assistance that he offered me in my earlier work as well as for the care and attention which he devoted to the original form of the present work. At the same time I wish to extend my thanks to colleagues at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences Institute for the Theory of Information and Automation and to the heads of the Institute for their profound understanding in enabling me to continue in this work and in affording me to that end not only excellent conditions, but also the many stimuli that came out of our discussions and private conversations. My gratitude is also due to Academician Igor Hrusovsky and Professor Vladimir Skalicka, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, for their valuable advice and remarks on the manuscript of this work. This is a work about language, in particular the language of science, yet the author is no philologist. It should not therefore be expected to furnish an analysis of every facet of the semantics of the language of science. Attention is centered here on those problems of the language of science that are of interest methodologically, together with certain philosophical and methodological side-tracks. Although the problems of logical semantics have not long been a topic for scientific investigation, they have already fathered a considerable corpus of literature which cannot be overlooked. I have therefore been unable to avoid references to some of the most important findings and viewpoints. Some of the assumed results of this study are based on my earlier publications or are a direct continuation from them. Other sections look back to works written jointly with A. Perez, namely the study On the Role of Information Theory in Certain Scientific Procedures (in 'Information and Prediction', Academic Press, 1965) and the study Modely nekterych vedeckych procedur z hlediska logiky a teorie informace xiii

12 xiv FOREWORD (in 'Problemy kybernetiky', CSA V publ. house, 1965). Yet another part of the work was presented at the International Congress of Logic and the Methodology of Science, held at Jerusalem in August It is my duty to acknowledge with gratitude the great care devoted to reading the first version of the manuscript by Karel Berka and Pavel Materna, who also gave me the benefit of their critical comments and much valuable advice on how the work might be improved.