Truth and Meaning Essays in Semantics

Truth and Meaning is a classic collection of original essays on fundamental questions in the philosophy of language. It was first published in 1976, and has remained essential reading in this area ever since; this is its first appearance in paperback. The contributors include leading figures in late twentieth-century philosophy, such as Donald Davidson, Saul Kripke, P. F. Strawson, and Michael Dummett. Most of the papers are not available elsewhere.

Introduction; J. A. Foster: I: Meaning and Truth Theory; Donald Davidson: II: Reply to Foster; John McDowell: III: Truth Conditions, Bivalence and Verificationism; Michael Dummett: IV: What is a Theory of Meaning? II; Brian Loar: V. Two Theories of Meaning; Christopher Peacocke: VI: Truth Definitions and Actual Languages; P. F. Strawson: VII: On Understanding the Structure of One's Language; Gareth Evans: VIII: Semantic Structure and Logical Form; Crispin Wright: IX: Language-Mastery and the Sorites Paradox; Michael Woods: X. Existence and Tense; Barry Taylor: XI: States of Affairs; David Wiggins: XII: The De Re Must: A Note on the Logical Form of Essentialist Claims; Christopher Peacocke: An Appendix to David Wiggins's Note; Saul Kripke: XIII: Is There a Problem about Substitutional Quantification?

Gareth Evans was Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy and Fellow of University College, Oxford; he died at the age of 34, in 1980. John McDowell is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, having previously been a Fellow of University College, Oxford; he is a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.