The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language

Oxford Handbooks in Philosophy

by Ernest Lepore (Editor), Barry C. Smith (Editor)

Ernie Lepore and Barry Smith present the definitive reference work for this diverse and fertile field of philosophy. A superb international team contribute forty brand-new essays covering topics from the nature of language to meaning, truth, and reference, and the interfaces of philosophy of language with linguistics, psychology, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics. It will be an essential resource for anyone working in the central areas of philosophy, for linguists interested in syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and for psychologists and cognitive scientists working on language.

Genres: Philosophy, Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction

1100 pages, Hardcover

First published November 23, 2006

About the author

Dr. Ernest Lepore is the author of numerous books and papers in the philosophy of language, philosophical logic, metaphysics and philosophy of mind.

Reviews

[lcjfrc · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overall rating of this handbook is somehow surprising, since it is by no means not the best book of its kind; the selected articles vary in their scope and depth a lot and to make everything worse, their organization is confusing, counter-intuitive. This is not a bad book to flick through and supplement one's existing knowledge, but it is not an ideal introductory anthology.

So many topics are left uncovered. Lepore, who edited the book, is known for undermining the importance of context in meaning formation, and his account of that issue is strongly present in the outcome. Without the attempt to take away the importance of its contribution to the field of philosophy of language, the existence of this handbook seems to owe more to the intellectual authority of its editor than to its helpfulness.

A recommendation for those interested in a more concise overview of the issues: Alexander Miller's Philosophy of Language. It's also quite limited in its scope, but definitely something to study before engaging with Lepore's handbook. Miller also stands out as a genuine author with that work; he has done a great deal of work to cover the fundamental problems of the field on his own, in a very comprehensible and organized way.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am still currently reading this (and, since it is a reference anthology will be reading it indefinitely far into the future), but (holy crap) is this good! Make it your bible and catch up with current trends in philosophy of language. The alternative is to chase down a wide array of expensive and/or hard to find books.