Language, Meaning, and Skepticism (Epistemology & Metaphysics)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from language, meaning, reference, and skepticism in epistemology and metaphysics.

Language

A shared system of representation used to communicate about truth-conditions and the world.

Meaning

The content that expressions convey; what makes them about things.

Reference

What a term picks out in the world or the object(s) it is true of.

Truth conditions

The conditions under which a statement is true.

Analytic definition

A definition that gives necessary and sufficient conditions for being X; knowing meaning = knowing its analytic definition.

Necessary condition

A condition that must be satisfied for something to be X.

Sufficient condition

A condition that, if satisfied, guarantees that something is X.

O-theory of meaning

The view that meaning is given by necessary and sufficient conditions, and reference follows from those conditions.

Referent

The actual entity that a term refers to in the world.

Concept

A mental representation, often linked to a set of truth-conditions.

Filly

A young female horse.

Bachelor

An unmarried adult male.

Unmarried adult male

A male who is an adult and not married; the conjunction of unmarried, adult, and male.

Ostensive definition

Definition by pointing to or showing the referent rather than stating conditions; uses examples.

Stipulative definition

A definition that imposes new necessary and sufficient conditions for a term.

Theoretical definition

Definition aiming to capture the essence or best theoretical understanding of a term (often via scientific properties).

Water is H2O

An example of a theoretical definition identifying water by its chemical composition (H2O).

Gold is the stuff of atomic number 79

An example of a theoretical definition describing gold by its atomic number (79).

Capybara

An ostensive example used to illustrate pointing to a referent in definitions.

Electron

An example of a term sometimes presented as a definition by description (e.g., ‘particle with smallest negative charge’), illustrating definitional approaches.

Radical skepticism

Philosophical skepticism about the external world; claims we do not know about objects, others, or the external world.

Solipsism

The view that only one’s own mind exists; the external world is not independently known.

Linguistic division of labor

The idea that reference and meaning are shaped by social use and expert input within a language community.