Meaning and Necessity

Meaning and Necessity: A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic (1947; enlarged edition 1956) is a book about semantics and modal logic by the philosopher Rudolf Carnap. The book, in which Carnap discusses the nature of linguistic expressions, was a continuation of his previous work in semantics in Introduction to Semantics (1942) and Formalization of Logic (1943). Considered an important discussion of semantics, it was influential and provided a basis for further developments in modal logic.

Meaning and Necessity: A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic

Cover of the first edition
Author	Rudolf Carnap
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Studies in Semantics
Subjects	Semantics Modal logic
Publisher	University of Chicago Press
Publication date	1947
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	258 (1964 fourth impression)
ISBN	978-0226093475

A particularly famous further development in semantics and modal logic, Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity, is titled as a reference to Carnap's book.^[1]

Summary

Carnap writes that his main purpose is the development of a new method for "the semantical analysis of meaning", which he considers synonymous with "analyzing and describing the meanings of linguistic expressions." He refers to this method as "the method of extension and intension", and explains that it is based on modification and extension of concepts such as those of class and property. He contrasts it with semantical methods that "regard an expression in a language as a name of a concrete or abstract entity", observing that unlike them, it "takes an expression, not as naming anything, but as possessing an intension and an extension." He presents Meaning and Necessity as the third volume of "Studies in Semantics", which includes previous volumes such as Introduction to Semantics. In addition to discussing meaning analysis, Carnap discusses modal logic, describing it as his second main topic.^[2]

The term "state-description" is used by Carnap to refer to a class of sentences which "contains for every atomic sentence either this sentence or its negation, but not both, and no other sentences". He considers the term justified because a state-description "obviously gives a complete description of a possible state of the universe of individuals with respect to all properties and relations expressed by predicates of the system."^[3] The enlarged edition of Meaning and Necessity includes previously published papers replying to criticism of Carnap by the philosophers Gilbert Ryle, Ernest Nagel, and Alonzo Church.^[4]

Publication history

Meaning and Necessity was first published in 1947 by the University of Chicago Press. An enlarged edition was published in 1956. In 1964, a fourth impression was published.^[5]

Reception

Meaning and Necessity received a positive review from Marie Hochmuth in the Quarterly Journal of Speech and a negative review from Ryle in Philosophy.^[6][7]

Hochmuth wrote that Carnap's work, like that of other members of the Vienna Circle, had "inspired the search for a neutral system of symbols, free from the dross of historical languages." She credited Carnap with drawing attention to "the urgent need for a system of theoretical pragmatics, not only for psychology and linguistics, but also for analytic philosophy." However, she noted that the first edition of the work had been criticized for "Carnap's claims for the simplicity and the scientific purity of his system."^[6]

Discussions of Meaning and Necessity include those by Carnap in Revue Internationale de Philosophie,^[8] the philosopher Nathan Salmon in The Philosophical Review,^[9] Bernard Linsky in History & Philosophy of Logic,^[10] Amélie Gheerbrant and Marcin Mostowski in Mathematical Logic Quarterly,^[11] and Juan José Acero in Teorema.^[12] Linsky suggested that Carnap had independently rediscovered points first made about logic by the philosopher Leon Chwistek in 1924.^[10]

The philosopher A. J. Ayer considered Meaning and Necessity more important than Carnap's other books on semantics, Introduction to Semantics and Formalization of Logic. However, he criticized the work, arguing that there is only a nominal distinction between Carnap's view that linguistic expressions have intensions and extensions and the traditional view that they "name concrete or abstract entities". He also suggested that despite Carnap's claim that every designation refers to both an intension and an extension, his system "provides only for the designation of intensional entities".^[13] The philosopher Dagfinn Føllesdal wrote that while Carnap admitted that he ignored complications with his proposed system of modal logic, he failed to explain what they were. He criticized Carnap for this, and suggested that Carnap was unaware of some of the problems with his views.^[14]

The philosopher E. J. Lowe wrote that Meaning and Necessity was "important and influential", and laid the foundations of much subsequent work in the semantics of modal logic. According to Lowe, the book was the culmination of Carnap's concern with the semantics of natural and formal languages, which developed subsequent to his publication of The Logical Syntax of Language (1934).^[15] The philosopher Henry E. Kyburg Jr. wrote that Meaning and Necessity provided the basis for a new form of modal logic. He considered Carnap's concept of the state-description one of his most important contributions.^[16]

References

1. Bianchi, Andrea (Apr 2022). "Back to the Golden Age: Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity and Twenty‐First Century Philosophy". Theoria. 88 (2): 278–295. doi:10.1111/theo.12359. ISSN 0040-5825.
2. Carnap 1964, p. iii.
3. Carnap 1964, p. 9.
4. Carnap 1964, pp. 205–250.
5. Carnap 1964, p. ii.
6. Hochmuth 1957, pp. 83–84.
7. Ryle 1949, pp. 69–76.
8. Carnap 1950, pp. 20–40.
9. Salmon 2002, pp. 497–537.
10. Linsky 2004, pp. 53–71.
11. Gheerbrant & Mostowski 2006, pp. 87–94.
12. Acero 2014, pp. 57–74.
13. Ayer 1984, p. 157.
14. Føllesdal 2004, p. 210.
15. Lowe 2005, pp. 126–127.
16. Kyburg 2017, p. 141.

Bibliography

Books

• Ayer, A. J. (1984). Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. London: Unwin Paperbacks. ISBN 0-04-100044-7.
• Carnap, Rudolf (1964). Meaning and Necessity: A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Føllesdal, Dagfinn (2004). "Quine on Modality". In Gibson, Roger F. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Quine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-63949-2.
• Kyburg, Henry E. (2017). "Carnap, Rudolf". In Audi, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-64379-6.
• Lowe, E. J. (2005). "Carnap, Rudolf". In Honderich, Ted (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926479-1.

Journals

• Acero, Juan José (2014). "Carnap's Meaning & Necessity and the Universalist Tradition". Teorema. 33 (2).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
• Carnap, Rudolf (1950). "Empiricism, semantics, and ontology". Revue Internationale de Philosophie. 4 (11).
• Gheerbrant, Amélie; Mostowski, Marcin (2006). "Recursive complexity of the Carnap first order modal logic C". Mathematical Logic Quarterly. 52 (1): 87–94. doi:10.1002/malq.200410057. S2CID 632870.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
• Hochmuth, Marie (1957). "Meaning and Necessity (book)". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 43 (1).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
• Linsky, Bernard (2004). "Leon Chwistek on the no-classes theory in Principia Mathematica". History & Philosophy of Logic. 25 (1): 53–71. doi:10.1080/01445340310001614698. S2CID 120775593.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
• Ryle, Gilbert (1949). "Meaning and Necessity". Philosophy. 24 (88): 69–76. doi:10.1017/S0031819100006781. S2CID 145233608.
• Salmon, Nathan (2002). "Demonstrating and Necessity". The Philosophical Review. 111 (4): 497–537. doi:10.2307/1556427. JSTOR 1556427.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)