Description

Seminar on Language and Communication

Tuesday, May 17th, at "Taller de Docencia" (Carlos Santamaria Building)

9.30-11.00: María Cerezo (Complutense University of Madrid): Unsinn and Erläuterung as analogical terms in the Tractatus. A revision of old, new and elucidatory interpretation.

11.30-13.00: Luis Fernández Moreno (Complutense University of Madrid): On theoretical and observational terms in Putnam's theory.

María Cerezo (Complutense University of Madrid). Unsinn and Erläuterung as analogical terms in the Tractatus. A revision of old, new and elucidatory interpretations

Abstract:

My purpose in this study is to offer an interpretation of the pseudo-propositions of the Tractatus as elucidations (Erläuterung) and nonsensical in which I defend the view that these terms (“elucidation” and “nonsense”) are used analogically in the Tractatus. In my approach, the recourse to the theory of analogy is therefore methodological, but crucial, since it sheds light on the issue in a manner that allows us to conceive the pseudo-propositions of the Tractatus as conveying something different from a “sense” and as being nonsensical in a way that is in part similar to other nonsensical expressions and in part different. In addition, the interpretation offered here helps to clarify where the tensions and difficulties generated by the tractarian views are and to offer a third way between traditional and new readings of the Tractatus.

Luis Fernández Moreno (Complutense University of Madrid): On theoretical and observational terms in Putnam’s theory

Abstract:

A usual objection put forward against some versions of the causal theory of reference is that it cannot explain the reference changes that terms may undergo. Hilary Putnam is considered as one of the main advocates of that theory. In this talk I will focus on the classic formulation of Putnam’s theory, contained in his articles of the first half of the seventies of the last century, and I will examine the question as to whether Putnam’s theory makes reference change possible. On this matter I will take into consideration the reference of theoretical and observational terms.