From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!hsdndev!husc-news.harvard.edu!zariski!zeleny Thu Jan  9 10:34:26 EST 1992
Article 2589 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Xref: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca comp.ai.philosophy:2589 sci.philosophy.tech:1772
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!hsdndev!husc-news.harvard.edu!zariski!zeleny
>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Epiphenomenal semantics
Message-ID: <1992Jan8.221307.7240@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 9 Jan 92 03:13:05 GMT
References: <41047@dime.cs.umass.edu> <1991Dec30.150818.25714@cs.yale.edu> <5916@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
Lines: 46
Nntp-Posting-Host: zariski.harvard.edu

In article <5916@skye.ed.ac.uk> 
jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton) writes:

>In article <1991Dec30.150818.25714@cs.yale.edu> 
>mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott) writes:

DMD:
>>It is the case that
>>
>> (a) People use symbols that refer to things
>> (b) People can make semantic theories about what agents' symbols
>>     refer to
>>
>>but the theories referred to in (b) play no role in the competence
>>described in (a).

JD:
>If this is the explanation of "semantics is epiphenominal", then
>again I find I'm getting further from understanding you rather
>than closer.

In accordance with the Charity Principle, I suspect that it's a joke based
on equivocation between the form of a theory and its subject matter.

JD:
>Did anyone (Searlie or no) think having a semantic _theory_
>played a role in competance?  Is this the semantics Searle
>says syntax isn't sufficient for?  What, exactly, does this
>have to do with what's been debated all this time.

Nothing at all.  Note, however, that your esteemed interlocutor has also
claimed elsewhere that all semantical function of human language is
strictly epiphenomenal.  The only trouble with this approach is that it
can't be true, nor can its advocates mean it.

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
: Qu'est-ce qui est bien?  Qu'est-ce qui est laid?         Harvard   :
: Qu'est-ce qui est grand, fort, faible...                 doesn't   :
: Connais pas! Connais pas!                                 think    :
:                                                             so     :
: Mikhail Zeleny                                                     :
: 872 Massachusetts Ave., Apt. 707                                   :
: Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139           (617) 661-8151            :
: email zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu or zeleny@HUMA1.BITNET            :
:                                                                    :
'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`


