Language, Truth and Democracy: Essays in Honour of Jesús Padilla Gálvez

346 Pages·2020·1.135 MB·

by  Margit Gaffal (editor)

Language,TruthandDemocracy
Ἀπορία
Aporia /
Edited by
Jesús Padilla Gálvez
AdvisoryBoard:
PavoBarišić,MichelLeDu,MiguelGarcía-Baró,
MargitGaffal,GuillermoHurtado,AntónioMarques,
LorenzoPeña,NicanorUrsuaLezaun,
NunoVenturinha,andPabloQuintanilla
Volume 12
Language, Truth
and Democracy
Essays in Honour of Jesús Padilla Gálvez
Edited by
Margit Gaffal
ISBN978-3-11-069732-2
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-069736-0
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-069750-6
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2020936596
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
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Contents
MargitGaffal
Language,TruthandDemocracy:AnIntroduction 1
PeterM.S.Hacker
OfFatalismandFreedom 13
JulianNida-Rümelin
AnEssayonTruthandDemocracy 25
PeterSimons
Voids,Aliens,andtheUsualSuspects 45
JocelynBenoist
OpennessandUnboundedness 65
SeverinSchroeder
SemanticNormativityandMoralObligation 79
MichelLeDu
OntheMultifariousAspectsoftheWord“Aspect” 89
ChristianKanzian
WittgensteininContemporaryPhilosophy:ADifferentiated
Evaluation 99
AntonioMarques
AWittgensteinianCritiqueofKantianTranscendentalDeductionandthe
QuestionofaTranscendentalMotivationinWittgenstein’s
Philosophy 111
ChristianBermes
WhatCanOneHopefor?WhatCanOneExpect? 123
ArthurGibson
Intuition,Counter-Intuition&theAbsenceofOntologyforDark
Energy 135
VI Contents
RafaelHüntelmann
RealeundLogischeRelationen 157
EmilAngehrn
SinnundGeschichte:AndenGrenzenderMachbarkeit 169
PavoBarišić
AgonvonWahrheitundLügeinderDemokratie 185
TomásS.VivesAntón
NeubewertungderkommunikativenHandlungstheorie 197
MirkoWischke
DieGewaltdesBösen 213
AndreasRoser
DieTrennungvonPolitikundMoral 233
BernhardObsieger
PhilosophiealsErinnerung 247
JesúsPadillaGálvez
EtEgoMemini 271
JesúsPadillaGálvez
ListofPublications 305
ListofContributors 331
IndexofNames 333
SubjectIndex 337
MargitGaffal
Language, Truth and Democracy:
An Introduction
This Festschrift honours Professor Jesús Padilla Gálvez and pays tribute to his
scholarlycontributionspublishedoverthepastfourdecades.Colleagues,fellow
specialistsandfriendswithwhomourhonoreehasexchangedideasthroughout
hiscareerhavecontributedtothisvolume.Thetopicsofthecontributionscover
three thematic fields closely linked to the themes that Jesus Padilla Gálvez has
addressed in his research and which may be considered fundamental issues of
the new millennium: language, truth and democracy.1 In the following section,
thesethemeswillbebrieflyoutlined,followedbyasynopsisofthecontributors’
chapters.
Languageisthekeytotheworld.Itischaracteristicofhumansthatweusea
complexlanguagetocommunicate.Inlanguageweexpressourthoughts,experi-
ences,desiresandtastes,intend,planandaccomplishouractions,andperform
manyoperations.Weexchangeinformationbymeansofsymbols,gestures,signals
andsounds.Untilrecently,ourconceptionoflanguagewasguidedbyacatalogue
ofsystematicrulesoflanguageuse.Inlinewiththeserules,certainlinguisticcon-
structions are considered appropriate and suitable, while others seem odd or in-
congruous. The formal provisions of the prescriptive conception of grammar is
orientedtowardastandardmodeloflanguageinaspeechcommunity.Otherlin-
guistic constructions that may be common among other socio-economic groups
butdeviatefromthismodelareexcluded.Accordingtothismodelitismandatory
tospecifywhatisgrammaticallycorrectorincorrect.
For a long period of human history, the Cartesian model prevailed and man-
kindwasconsideredaspecialvariationofaphysical-corporalmachinethatevolved
throughacontinuousprocessofchangeoveralongtime.2Therewasthoughttobe
somethinglikeaninternallanguageconsistingofpre-determinedconceptsthatde-
terminethemeaningofwords.Theseconceptswereconsideredtobeingrainedin
thetalkingsubject(andthesoul).Languageresultedfromapsycho-physicalactiv-
ityinvolvingphoneticmovementsbywhichsoundsareproduced,withthewhole
1 A current bibliography of his philosophical monographs and articles can be found at the
endofthisvolume.
2 RenéDescartes,Discoursdelaméthode(1637),CharlesAdam,PaulTannery(eds.):Œuvres
deDescartes,Vol.6,Paris,LéopoldCerf,1897–1913.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110697360-001
2 MargitGaffal
process undergoing continuous refinement. However, the Cartesian approach has
distortedourconceptionoflanguageandthereforehasrequiredaradicalchange.
It was not until the illuminating work of Gottlob Frege,3 Bertrand Russell4
andLudwigWittgenstein5thatashiftinperspectivewasevokedbytheirformal
analysisoflanguageuse.Thismeantthatthefocuswasnolongeronthecom-
municative function of language, but language itself became the object of
investigation. The components of natural language such as proper names
and propositions perfectly fulfill their functions in everyday communication.
However, if they are used in a scientific context they prove insufficient due to
their limited degree of accuracy and tendency to produce ambiguities. The re-
quirement of greater accuracyhas arousednew researchinterestsin exploring
waystoimprovethelevelofprecisioninformaldescriptions.Formallanguages
are used to perform mathematical operations and to draw logical conclusions,
whereasanyconversationalaspectsareignored.Theyconsistofsign,stringsof
symbolsandtransformationrulesandenableustodescribesequencesoflogic
operations.Theformalmethodpermittedphilosopherstointroducefundamen-
tal distinctions such as that between form and content, symbol and designa-
tion, meaning and sense, or function and variable. On the basis of these
distinctions,languagecouldnowbesystematicallyexaminedandthefollowing
threecategorieswereproposed:(1)singularterms,(2)concepts,and(3)propo-
sitionsthatcontainvariables,predicatesorformulas.Thismethodenabledphi-
losophers to perform calculations on relations, refer to transparency versus
opacityandapproachmanyotherissuesdiscussedwithinthelastcentury.
ItwasL.WittgensteinwhosenotesintheTractatusLogico-Philosophicusre-
minded us that not even by using formal languages can all inaccuracies be
eliminated.Heillustratedthisdrawbackbythewell-knownexampleofidentity,
expressedinthestatement“greenisgreen”,towhichhesuggested“a=a”asa
3 Gottlob Frege, Begriffsschrift, eine der arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache des reinen
Denkens,Hallea.S.,LouisNebert,1879;GottlobFrege,FunctionundBegriff.Vortraggehaltenin
derSitzungvom9.Januar1891derJenaischenGesellschaftfürMedicinundNaturwissenschaft,Jena,
HermannPohle,1891;GottlobFrege,ÜberSinnundBedeutung,ZeitschriftfürPhilosophieundphi-
losophischeKritik,1892,25–50.GottlobFrege,ÜberBegriffundGegenstand.Vierteljahrsschriftfür
wissenschaftlichePhilosophie,16.Jahrgang,Nr.2,1892,192–205.
4 Bertrand Russell, The Principles of Mathematics, Cambridge, University Press, 1903.
Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead: Principia Mathematica. 3 Vols., Cambridge,
UniversityPress,1910–1913.
5 LudwigWittgenstein,Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus,C.K.Ogdenpreparedwithassistance
fromG.E.Moore,F.P.Ramsey,andWittgenstein.London,Routledge&KeganPaul,1922.
Language,TruthandDemocracy:AnIntroduction 3
formalequivalent.6Agrammaticalanalysisrevealedthatthefunctionoftheex-
pression “green” on the left side of the equation is different from that on the
right side. At the same time, he considered G. Frege’s study of language to be
toorestrictive,sohehadtoovercomeobsoleteproposalsthathadadverselyre-
strained the analytic tradition. Among Wittgenstein’s outstanding results was
the insight that communication is characterized by a diversity of language
games.Eachoftheselanguagegamesisinturnassociatedwithdifferentforms
oflife.7Thephilosophers’contributionstothisvolume,aswellasJesúsPadilla
Gálvez’sownresearch,makefrequentreferencetothisfield.
Wheninvestigatinglanguage,someconsiderconceptsandpredicatestobe
the key elements and starting point for further investigations, while for others
the key approach comes via the concept of “truth”. Undoubtedly, the analysis
of every philosophical problem relates to the question of theory. In his re-
search, Padilla Gálvez has pointed out that a truth theory must satisfy two
fundamentalrequirements:first,itmustenableustoexpoundanextensiveset
of linguistic structures within a model that involves at least one arbitrary ele-
ment, and second, it must make sufficiently precise predictions about the ex-
pected results of the proposition. In this context, Tarski’s claim to present a
satisfactorydefinitionofa“true”predicatethatismateriallyadequateandfor-
mallycorrectisstillrelevant.Heunderlinedthatthisrequirementdependedon
the type of language applied: whereas open languages allow for a distinction
between object language and metalanguage, semantically closed languages,
suchaseverydaylanguage,lacksuchdistinction.Althoughinclosedlanguages
the colloquial meaning of ‘true’ can easily be understood, it seems impossible
toprovideanexactdefinitionorproofofwhatisconsidered‘true’.Theintentof
definingtruthwithinclosedsystemscanevenresultinparadoxes.Theproblem
of truth can only be solved by introducing a definition of truth on a metalan-
guage level. Equally important is the type of logic by which we operate, be it
bivalent or versatile logic, and the empirical presuppositions (physicalist, es-
sentialist,etc.)onwhichlanguageisbased.
Each of these elements has an impact on the solutions we provide to the
questionsoflanguage.Inthiswork,PadillaGálvezhasanalyzedtheproperties
of the expressions “true” and “proof”: in the first we are confronted with a
semantic predicate, whereas the second has the form of syntactic linguistic
6 Wefind:“Intheproposition,‘Greenisgreen’–wherethefirstwordisthenameofaperson
andthelastanadjective–thesewordsdonotmerelyhavedifferentmeanings:theyarediffer-
entsymbols.”Wittgenstein,TLP3.323.
7 Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Margit Gaffal, Forms of Life and Language Games, Frankfurt a.M.,
Paris,Lancaster,NewBrunswick,OntosVerlag,2011.
4 MargitGaffal
structure.8 These distinctions enable us to describe certain insights about self-
referential systems that appear, for instance, in the liar’s paradox.9 Although
the correspondence theory of truth is the most widespread theory of truth, it
containsaseriesofdrawbacksthathavebeensystematicallyaddressed.According
tothistheory,truthconsistsinconcordancebetweenwhatisknownorunderstood
andreality.Thereareseriousdoubts,however,astowhetherthecorrespondence
theory of truth can be applied to metaphysical knowledge, which is traditionally
expressedinaprescriptiveform.
ThethirdtopicofPadillaGálvez’swork,legality,iscloselylinkedtothecon-
cept of democracy.10 Recent events in European history have motivated Padilla
Gálvez to study the legal principles on which democratic systems are based.11
Legality is based on the principle that the exercise of public power (legislative)
mustbeimplementedinaccordancewithapplicablelawandcurrentjurisdiction.
Theaimistoguaranteelegalcertaintyandensurethepredictabilityoflegaldeci-
sions.Whatonenoticesisthatdemocraticsystemshavebeenthreatenedbydiffer-
ent legitimistic proposals such as those made by populist and nationalist
movements.12Thesetendenciesmaybeconsideredaformofterrorismthataimto
underminethelegalstructuresandreplacethembyimplementingautocraticsys-
tems.Atthesametime,arapidlydevelopingandradicallyprogressingeconomic
8 JesúsPadillaGálvez,WasleistetdiesemantischeInterpretationderWahrheit?Zeitschriftfür
PhilosophischeForschung,48/3,1994,420–434.JesúsPadillaGálvez,Verdadydemostración,
Madrid,MéxicoD.F.,PlazayValdés,2007.JesúsPadillaGálvez,Verdad.Controversiasabier-
tas,Valencia,TirantHumanidades,2017.
9 JesúsPadillaGálvez,WahrheitundSelbstrückbezüglichkeit,JournalforGeneralPhilosophyof
Science,1991,Vol.22,111–132.JesúsPadillaGálvez,Laconcepciónsemánticadelaverdad,lapar-
adoja del mentiroso y los sistemas autorreferenciales. Actas del VII Congreso de Lenguajes
Naturales y Lenguajes Formales. Barcelona, 1992, 197–208. Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Wahrheit,
Paradoxie und Logik, Conceptus, 1993, XXVI, Nr. 68, 83–92. Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Der Lügner,
PilatusunddiesemantischeWahrheitstheorie,Philosophie.Wissenschaft–wirtschaft.Miteinander
Denken – Voneinander Lernen. Akten des VI. Kongresses der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für
Philosophie.(Eds.RainerBorn/OttoNeumaier),Wien,öbvethpt,2001,178–184.
10 Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Ο θετικισμός του Kelsen. In: Hans Kelsen: Η διαχρονικότητα του
πνεύματοςστονομικόκαικοινωνιολογικότουέργο.Ed.NiklasAliprantis,Atenas,ΕΚΔΟΣΕΙΣΠΑ
ΠΑΖΗΣΗ,2013,69–83.JesúsPadillaGálvez,DerPositivismusvonKelsen.In:HansKelsen:Die
Aktualität eines grossen Rechtswissenschafters und Soziologen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Eds.
Nikitas Aliprantis, Thomas Olechowski. Schriftenreihe des Hans Kelsen-Institut. Vol. 36,
Viena,Manz,2014,39–51.
11 Jesús Padilla Gálvez, La oclocracia como peligro para la democracia. Sistema. Revista de
Ciencias Sociales, Julio 239, 2015, 99–118. Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Democracy in Times of
Ochlocracy,SynthesisPhilosophica,63(1/2017),167–178.
12 JesúsPadillaGálvez,Cambiosocialyterrorismo.In:Pensarlaviolencia,lajusticiaylalib-
ertad.Ed.OlgaBelmonteGarcía.Madrid,PublicacionesdeComillas,2012,343–362.