Talking About Nothing

Zoltán Vecsey

doi:10.12775/LLP.2019.027

Autor

Zoltán Vecsey MTA-DE-SZTE, Research Group for Theoretical Linguistics

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/LLP.2019.027

Słowa kluczowe

empty singular terms, reference, zilch, non-relational representation

Abstrakt

Some singular terms are referentially empty by necessity. Oliver and Smiley have recently introduced the term ‘zilch’ for illustrating this kind of emptiness. The emptiness of ‘zilch’ is supposed to arise from the fact that its extension has been defined by a logically unsatisfiable condition. Casati and Fujikawa disagree with this explanation and claim that ‘zilch’ refers to some null thing. In this paper, I argue that neither of these positions is correct, since, for different reasons, they both misinterpret the phenomenon of referential emptiness. As an alternative, I propose a representationalist account of emptiness, which can explain the properties of ‘zilch’ and similar terms more effectively.

Bibliografia

Berto, F., 2012, Existence as a Real Property. The Ontology of Meinongianism, Dordrecht: Springer. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4207-9

Bunge, M., “On null individuals”, The Journal of Philosophy 63: 776–778. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2023807

Burge, T., 2010, Origins of Objectivity, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Casati, F., and N. Fujikawa, 2015, “Better than zilch?”, Logic and Logical Philosophy 24 (2): 255–264. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/LLP.2015.004

Collins, J., 2014, “Representations without representa: content and illusion in linguistic theory”, pages 27–63 in P. Stalmaszczyk (ed.), Semantics and Beyond: Philosophical and Linguistic Inquiries, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110362480.27

Crane, T., 2013, The Objects of Thought, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goodman, N., 1968, Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

Kroon, F., 2003, “Quantified negative existentials”, Dialectica 57: 149–167. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-8361.2003.tb00262.x

Lambert, K., 2001, “Free Logic and Definite Descriptions”, pages 37–48 in E. Morscher and A. Hieke (eds.), New Essays in Free Logic, Berlin: Springer. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9761-6

Kripke, S., 2013, Reference and Existence, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nolt, J., 2006, “Free logics”, pages 1023–1060 in D. Jacquette (ed.), Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, vol. 5 “Philosophy of Logic”, Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-044451541-4/50027-0

Oliver, A., and T. Smiley, 2013, “Zilch”, Analysis 73: 601–613. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/analys/ant074

Priest, G., 2014a, One: Being an Investigation into the Unity of Reality and of its Parts, including the Singular Object which is Nothingness, Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688258.001.0001

Priest, G., 2014b, “Much ado about nothing”, Australasian Journal of Logic 11: 146–158. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26686/ajl.v11i2.2144

Rey, G., 2006, “The intentional inexistence of language – but not cars”, pages 237–255 in R.J. Stainton (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Cognitive Science, Oxford: Blackwell.

Sainsbury, M., 2018, Thinking about Things, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Salmon, N., “Nonexistence”, Nous 32: 277–319. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0029-4624.00101

Vecsey, Z., 2019, Fiction and Representation, Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter.