From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!logos.waterloo.edu!cpshelle Thu Jan 16 17:19:14 EST 1992
Article 2595 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: cpshelle@logos.waterloo.edu (cameron shelley)
Subject: Re: Epiphenomenal semantics
Message-ID: <1992Jan9.152802.1401@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
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Organization: Evil Designs Inc.
References: <5916@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1992 15:28:02 GMT
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jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:
> In article <1991Dec30.150818.25714@cs.yale.edu> mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott) writes:
> >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).
> 
> If this is the explanation of "semantics is epiphenominal", then
> again I find I'm getting further from understanding you rather
> than closer.

I believe it means that reference cannot be decomposed into more
`basic' components which a semantic theory could then access.  Breaking
down a reference only gets you more reference.

> 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.

Searle tried to make a "constitutive"/"regulative" distinction:
constitutive rules essentially enact definitions, while regulative
rules state observations (my paraphrase).  The definitions (which are
basically a means of reference) are not the same as the enactments of
themselves, so both these kinds of rules fall into category (b) above. 
Searle's various statements about syntax and semantics (their
relationship) seem predicated on some sort of transformational
grammar, which had methodological problems of its own---one of which
was to apparently represent competence entirely through syntax. 

				Cam
--
      Cameron Shelley        | "Syllogism, n.  A logical formula consisting
cpshelle@logos.waterloo.edu  |  of a major and a minor assumption and an
    Davis Centre Rm 2136     |  inconsequent."
 Phone (519) 885-1211 x3390  |				Ambrose Bierce


