Every Theory of Meaning Is Hiding Something

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]In my article, Skeletons in the Closet of Natural Language Semantics, I argue that our semantic theories do work. We don't lose all constraints. We don't become hermeneutic [music] anarchists, but not without a transcendental condition. Some shared internal framework has to be presupposed as a condition of intelligibility.

[00:00:25]In the history of philosophy, certain critiques of Tarski move in a similar direction. Etchemendy, for instance, argues that the model theoretic account of consequence does not truly ground necessity.

[00:00:39]It works only because we already rely on an informal grasp of what following necessarily means.

[00:00:47]The semantics does not generate that notion. It presupposes [music] it.

[00:00:53]Davidson's move solved the problem of interpretation by smuggling in normativity.

[00:00:59]Assuming rationality of peers seems easy, but is it when it is not a peer?