Language, Logic and Epistemology: A Modal-Realist Approach

281 Pages·2004·1.721 MB·

by  Christopher Norris (auth.)

Language, Logic and
Epistemology
A Modal-Realist Approach
Christopher Norris
Language, Logic and Epistemology
Recent publications by Christopher Norris
DECONSTRUCTION: THEORY AND PRACTICE 3rd Edn
HILARY PUTNAM: REALISM, REASON, AND THE USES OF UNCERTAINTY
TRUTH MATTERS: REALISM, ANTI-REALISM AND RESPONSE-DEPENDENCE
DECONSTRUCTION AND THE UNFINISHED PROJECT OF MODERNITY
MINDING THE GAP: EPISTEMOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE IN THE TWO
TRADITIONS
QUANTUM THEORY AND THE FLIGHT FROM REALISM; PHILOSOPHICAL
RESPONSES TO QUANTUM MECHANICS
AGAINST RELATIVISM: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, DECONSTRUCTION AND
CRITICAL THEORY
NEW IDOLS OF THE CAVE: ON THE LIMITS OF ANTI-REALISM
RESOURCES OF REALISM: PROSPECTS FOR ‘POST-ANALYTIC’ PHILOSOPHY
Edited with David Roden
JACQUES DERRIDA
Edited with Christa Knellwolf
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM, Vol 9: TWENTIETH CENTURY
HISTORICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
Language, Logic and
Epistemology: A Modal-Realist
Approach
Christopher Norris
Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy, Cardiff University, UK
© Christopher Norris 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004
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DOI 10.1057/9780230512362
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Norris, Christopher, 1947–
Language, logic and epistemology:a modal-realist approach/Christopher Norris.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–2165–2
1. Philosophy, Modern—20th century. 2. Deconstruction.
3. Poststructuralism. 4. Language—Philosophy. 5. Knowledge,
Theory of. 6. Logic. I. Title.
B804.N67 2004
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13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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For Alison, Clare and Jenny
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Derrida on Rousseau: Deconstruction as Philosophy of Logic 16
2 The Limits of Whose Language?: Wittgenstein on Logic,
Mathematics, and Science 66
3 Modularity, Nativism, and Reference-Fixing: On
Chomsky’s Internalist Assumptions 111
4 The Perceiver’s Share (1): Realism, Scepticism, and
Response-Dependence 150
5 The Perceiver’s Share (2): Deconstructive
Musicology and Cognitive Science 185
6 Change, Conservation, and Crisis-Management in the
Discourse of Analytic Philosophy 227
Index 267
vii
Acknowledgements
As usual my work on this book has been helped, stimulated, jogged along,
and generally made more enjoyable by regular discussion with my colleagues
in the Philosophy Section at Cardiff. It is a tribute to their spirit of shared
intellectual commitment – as well as their resilience and good humour –
that such discussion continues to flourish despite what appears a concerted
effort to prevent it on the part of government policy-makers and tame
bureaucrats. I should like to thank Barry Wilkins in particular for his friendship
and encouragement over the years; also Robin Attfield for much good
advice and constructive commentary on work in progress. Alex Miller left
Cardiff for a post in Australia when the book was just beginning to shape up
but I expect he will recognise how much of it (especially the sections on
rule-following and response-dependence) grew out of our various exchanges
and productive disagreements. My post-graduate students – among them
(most recently) Jason Barker, Gideon Calder, Paul Gorton, Theo Grammenos,
Carol Jones, Laurence Peddle, and Rea Walldén – have helped a great deal in
enabling me to see where some point needed clarification or some line of
argument strengthening. The chapter on deconstructive musicology was in
large part inspired (or provoked) by discussions with Ken Gloag, my colleague
in the Music Department at Cardiff and convenor of our jointly taught MA
course in Music and Cultural Politics. He will probably not find much to
agree with here but the chapter owes a lot to his shrewd comments in and
out of the seminar room.
David Roden cast an expert eye over sections of Chapter 2 where I venture
a formalised (modal-logical) rendition of Derrida’s arguments concerning
the thematics of ‘supplementarity’ in Rousseau and of ‘iterability’ in the
discourse of Austinian speech-act theory. You can teach an old dog one or
two new tricks but it helps no end to have a young dog around to gnaw at
these technical bones. Recasting the passages from Derrida in symbolic
notation was a tough exercise but (I trust) well worth the effort if it helps to
convince at least a few anti-Derridean ‘analytic’ diehards that they have
missed something important. Anyway I am grateful to David for this, as
likewise for the huge amount of reading and the powers of acute critical
scholarship which he brought to our recently coedited four-volume anthology
of writings on Derrida. Special mention also to Janos Barcsak, David Edwards,
Dan Latimer, Peter Murray, Daniele Procida, Alison Scott-Baumann, David
Skilton, Christine Southwell, Manuel Barbeito Varela, Alison Venables, and
Robin Wood for reasons too many and varied to recount. My copy-editor
Selvin Vedamanickam and the production contact Jophcy Joseph, at Integra
Software Services in Pondicherry, were helpful, friendly and patient far
viii
Acknowledgements ix
beyond the call of duty and also provided my first experience of how these
things are done in an age of global electronic communications. My debts
nearer home – to Alison, Clare, and Jenny – should go without saying
by now but I shall say them once again with undiminished gratitude and
affection.
Meanwhile it would be wrong to let this occasion pass without expressing
my unreserved support for those millions of people worldwide who have come
out in opposition to the unjust and illegal war against Iraq that is currently
being waged ‘in our name’ by the US and British governments. If there is
any hope to be had in these bad times then it rests with the collective courage
and resistance – along with the sense of implacable moral outrage – that have
brought the protestors together across otherwise large political differences
of view. I should especially like to thank my comrades in Cor Cochion
Caerdydd for their untiring dedication to the anti-war cause; also those others
in and around Cardiff who have devoted vast amounts of time and energy
to organising local meetings and events. Ten years ago I published a book
about the first (1991) Gulf War which, among other things, took postmod-
ernists to task for adopting an extreme anti-realist, relativist, or linguistic-
constructivist position and thereby effectively depriving themselves of any
factual or moral ground upon which to mount such resistance. This present
volume is for the most part pitched at a philosophic level far removed from the
context of current world-political events. All the same there are some conti-
nuities worth remarking, in particular as concerns my discussion (Chapter 3)
of Noam Chomsky’s work in theoretical linguistics and cognitive psychology.
I trust that my taking issue with Chomsky on certain relatively technical
points will not obscure my immense admiration for his brave and uniquely
authoritative stand against this and other recent shameful episodes in the
history of man’s inhumanity to man.
Cardiff, Wales April 2003
Note
Several chapters or versions thereof have appeared previously in journals or
edited volumes. I am grateful for permission to reprint this material in revised
form to Sage Publishers and to the editors and publishers of Metaphilosophy,
Philosophy at Yeditepe, and Pretexts.