Stephen Neale
Encyclopedia
Stephen Roy Albert Neale (born January 9, 1958) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Linguistics and holder of the John H. Kornblith Family Chair in the Philosophy of Science and Values at the Graduate Center, City University of New York
(CUNY). Neale is a specialist in the philosophy of language
and has written extensively about meaning, information, and interpretation, and more generally about issues at the intersection of philosophy and linguistics. He has also written about the history of analytic philosophy and is one of the world’s leading authorities on Bertrand Russell
’s Theory of Descriptions
, on the philosophies of Paul Grice
and Donald Davidson
, and on the intricacies of formal arguments in logic known as slingshots. His best known writings are the books Descriptions (1990) and Facing Facts (2001), and the articles "Meaning, Grammar, and Indeterminacy" (1987), "Paul Grice and the Philosophy of Language" (1992), "Term Limits" (1993), "No Plagiarism Here!" (2001). He is the nephew of the horologist George Daniels.
. Previously he was Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Logic and Methodology of Science at the University of California, Berkeley
(1990–1999), and Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College
, University of London (1996–1997). His first position was as assistant professor of philosophy and linguistics at Princeton University
(1988–1990). He received his PhD in philosophy from Stanford University
(1988), where he worked under the supervision of John Perry
and conducted research at the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI). He has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship
(2002), the National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellowship (1998), the Rockefeller Foundation
Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship at Bellagio (1995), as well as fellowships, scholarships and honorary professorships from numerous institutions including the University of California, Stanford University, the University of Miami, Oxford University, the University of London, the University of Oslo, the University of Stockholm, and the University of Iceland.
, the philosophy of mind
, cognitive science
, philosophical logic
, metaphysics
, theory of legal interpretation
, and literary theory
. Philosophical problems about interpretation, context, information content, structure, and representation form the nexus of Neale's work. He has vigorously defended Russell's Theory of Descriptions
, descriptive theories of anaphora
, Paul Grice's intention-based theory of meaning, and a general approach to meaning and interpretation he calls "linguistic pragmatism". His most influential work to date has been on the underdetermination and indeterminacy associated with uses of so-called incomplete descriptions (a topic that runs through much of his work from his 1990 book Descriptions to his 2005 papers "This, That, and the Other" and "A Century Later"), and on a slingshot argument originally used by Kurt Gödel
(examined in his 2001 book Facing Facts).
Neale is an intentionalist
and a pragmatist
about the interpretation of speech and writing, and to this extent his work is rooted firmly in the Gricean
tradition. While probably a Quinean in his attitude towards indeterminacy in the realm of meaning, Neale is a Chomskyan
and a Fodorian
in his empirical attitude towards syntax and mental representation. Aspects of syntactic theory and formal logic figure heavily in some of his writings, and a realist (rather than a pragmatist) position on truth
runs through them, although he appears to be agnostic about the explanatory value of appeals to individual facts in philosophical talk about truth. Traditional accounts of interpretation are marred, Neale claims, by (1) a failure to engage correctly with the epistemic asymmetry of the situations in which producers and consumers of language find themselves; (2) a consequent failure to distinguish adequately the metaphysical question of what determines what a speaker (or writer) means on a given occasion from the epistemological question of how that particular meaning is identified; (3) a failure to appreciate the severity of constraints on the formation of linguistic intentions; (4) failures to appreciate pervasive forms of underdeterminaton (such as those examined by pragmatists and relevance theorists
); (5) failures to recognize that genuine indeterminacy of the sort associated with what speakers (and writers) imply may also affect what they say (for example, when they use incomplete definite descriptions); (6) inappropriate reliance on formal notions of context deriving from indexical logics, (7) unwarranted faith in transcendent notions of "what is said", "what is implied" and "what is referred to"; and (8) a quite general overestimation of the role traditional compositional semantics can play in explanations of how humans use language to represent the world and communicate.
, Noam Chomsky
, Donald Davidson
, Gareth Evans
, Jerry Fodor
, Paul Grice
, Saul Kripke
, John Perry
, W. V. Quine, Bertrand Russell
, Dan Sperber
and Deirdre Wilson. Philosophers of language who have written their PhD dissertations under Neale's supervision include Herman Cappelen (University of Oslo
), Josh Dever (University of Texas, Austin), Eli Dresner (Tel Aviv University
), and Angel Pinillos (Arizona State University
).
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
(CUNY). Neale is a specialist in the philosophy of language
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
and has written extensively about meaning, information, and interpretation, and more generally about issues at the intersection of philosophy and linguistics. He has also written about the history of analytic philosophy and is one of the world’s leading authorities on Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
’s Theory of Descriptions
Theory of descriptions
The theory of descriptions is the philosopher Bertrand Russell's most significant contribution to the philosophy of language. It is also known as Russell's Theory of Descriptions...
, on the philosophies of Paul Grice
Paul Grice
Herbert Paul Grice , usually publishing under the name H. P. Grice, H...
and Donald Davidson
Donald Davidson (philosopher)
Donald Herbert Davidson was an American philosopher born in Springfield, Massachusetts, who served as Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley from 1981 to 2003 after having also held teaching appointments at Stanford University, Rockefeller University, Princeton...
, and on the intricacies of formal arguments in logic known as slingshots. His best known writings are the books Descriptions (1990) and Facing Facts (2001), and the articles "Meaning, Grammar, and Indeterminacy" (1987), "Paul Grice and the Philosophy of Language" (1992), "Term Limits" (1993), "No Plagiarism Here!" (2001). He is the nephew of the horologist George Daniels.
Academic biography
From 1999 to 2007 Neale was Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers UniversityRutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
. Previously he was Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Logic and Methodology of Science at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(1990–1999), and Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
, University of London (1996–1997). His first position was as assistant professor of philosophy and linguistics at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
(1988–1990). He received his PhD in philosophy from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(1988), where he worked under the supervision of John Perry
John Perry (philosopher)
John R. Perry is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. He has made significant contributions to areas of philosophy, including logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind...
and conducted research at the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI). He has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
(2002), the National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
Fellowship (1998), the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship at Bellagio (1995), as well as fellowships, scholarships and honorary professorships from numerous institutions including the University of California, Stanford University, the University of Miami, Oxford University, the University of London, the University of Oslo, the University of Stockholm, and the University of Iceland.
Work
Neale's writings are primarily in the philosophy of language, construed broadly enough to intersect with generative linguisticsGenerative linguistics
Generative linguistics is a school of thought within linguistics that makes use of the concept of a generative grammar. The term "generative grammar" is used in different ways by different people, and the term "generative linguistics" therefore has a range of different, though overlapping,...
, the philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
, cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
, philosophical logic
Philosophical logic
Philosophical logic is a term introduced by Bertrand Russell to represent his idea that the workings of natural language and thought can only be adequately represented by an artificial language; essentially it was his formalization program for the natural language...
, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
, theory of legal interpretation
Judicial interpretation
Judicial interpretation is a theory or mode of thought that explains how the judiciary should interpret the law, particularly constitutional documents and legislation...
, and literary theory
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
. Philosophical problems about interpretation, context, information content, structure, and representation form the nexus of Neale's work. He has vigorously defended Russell's Theory of Descriptions
Theory of descriptions
The theory of descriptions is the philosopher Bertrand Russell's most significant contribution to the philosophy of language. It is also known as Russell's Theory of Descriptions...
, descriptive theories of anaphora
Anaphora (linguistics)
In linguistics, anaphora is an instance of an expression referring to another. Usually, an anaphoric expression is represented by a pro-form or some other kind of deictic--for instance, a pronoun referring to its antecedent...
, Paul Grice's intention-based theory of meaning, and a general approach to meaning and interpretation he calls "linguistic pragmatism". His most influential work to date has been on the underdetermination and indeterminacy associated with uses of so-called incomplete descriptions (a topic that runs through much of his work from his 1990 book Descriptions to his 2005 papers "This, That, and the Other" and "A Century Later"), and on a slingshot argument originally used by Kurt Gödel
Kurt Gödel
Kurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher. Later in his life he emigrated to the United States to escape the effects of World War II. One of the most significant logicians of all time, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the...
(examined in his 2001 book Facing Facts).
Neale is an intentionalist
Intentionality
The term intentionality was introduced by Jeremy Bentham as a principle of utility in his doctrine of consciousness for the purpose of distinguishing acts that are intentional and acts that are not...
and a pragmatist
Pragmatist
Pragmatist may refer to:*A person who subscribes to pragmatism, a field of philosophy*A person who subscribes to pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy...
about the interpretation of speech and writing, and to this extent his work is rooted firmly in the Gricean
Paul Grice
Herbert Paul Grice , usually publishing under the name H. P. Grice, H...
tradition. While probably a Quinean in his attitude towards indeterminacy in the realm of meaning, Neale is a Chomskyan
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
and a Fodorian
Jerry Fodor
Jerry Alan Fodor is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. He holds the position of State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and is the author of many works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science, in which he has laid the groundwork for the...
in his empirical attitude towards syntax and mental representation. Aspects of syntactic theory and formal logic figure heavily in some of his writings, and a realist (rather than a pragmatist) position on truth
Truth
Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...
runs through them, although he appears to be agnostic about the explanatory value of appeals to individual facts in philosophical talk about truth. Traditional accounts of interpretation are marred, Neale claims, by (1) a failure to engage correctly with the epistemic asymmetry of the situations in which producers and consumers of language find themselves; (2) a consequent failure to distinguish adequately the metaphysical question of what determines what a speaker (or writer) means on a given occasion from the epistemological question of how that particular meaning is identified; (3) a failure to appreciate the severity of constraints on the formation of linguistic intentions; (4) failures to appreciate pervasive forms of underdeterminaton (such as those examined by pragmatists and relevance theorists
Relevance theory
Relevance theory is a proposal by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson that seeks to explain the second method of communication: one that takes into account implicit inferences...
); (5) failures to recognize that genuine indeterminacy of the sort associated with what speakers (and writers) imply may also affect what they say (for example, when they use incomplete definite descriptions); (6) inappropriate reliance on formal notions of context deriving from indexical logics, (7) unwarranted faith in transcendent notions of "what is said", "what is implied" and "what is referred to"; and (8) a quite general overestimation of the role traditional compositional semantics can play in explanations of how humans use language to represent the world and communicate.
Influences
Important influences on Neale are J. L. AustinJ. L. Austin
John Langshaw Austin was a British philosopher of language, born in Lancaster and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford University. Austin is widely associated with the concept of the speech act and the idea that speech is itself a form of action...
, Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Donald Davidson
Donald Davidson (philosopher)
Donald Herbert Davidson was an American philosopher born in Springfield, Massachusetts, who served as Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley from 1981 to 2003 after having also held teaching appointments at Stanford University, Rockefeller University, Princeton...
, Gareth Evans
Gareth Evans (philosopher)
Gareth Evans was a British philosopher.-Life:Gareth Evans studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College, Oxford . His philosophy tutor was Peter Strawson...
, Jerry Fodor
Jerry Fodor
Jerry Alan Fodor is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. He holds the position of State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and is the author of many works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science, in which he has laid the groundwork for the...
, Paul Grice
Paul Grice
Herbert Paul Grice , usually publishing under the name H. P. Grice, H...
, Saul Kripke
Saul Kripke
Saul Aaron Kripke is an American philosopher and logician. He is a professor emeritus at Princeton and teaches as a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center...
, John Perry
John Perry (philosopher)
John R. Perry is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. He has made significant contributions to areas of philosophy, including logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind...
, W. V. Quine, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, Dan Sperber
Dan Sperber
Dan Sperber is a French social and cognitive scientist. His most influential work has been in the fields of cognitive anthropology and linguistic pragmatics: developing, with British psychologist Deirdre Wilson, relevance theory in the latter; and an approach to cultural evolution known as the...
and Deirdre Wilson. Philosophers of language who have written their PhD dissertations under Neale's supervision include Herman Cappelen (University of Oslo
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
), Josh Dever (University of Texas, Austin), Eli Dresner (Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
), and Angel Pinillos (Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
).
Books
- Descriptions MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
, 1993. (Originally published 1990.) ISBN 0-262-64031-7 - Facing Facts Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2002. (Originally published 2001.) ISBN 0-19-924715-3
Edited volume
- Mind. Special issue commemorating 100th anniversary of Russell's "On Denoting" Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2005.
Selected articles
- Term Limits Revisited Philosophical Perspectives 22, 1 (2008), pp. 89–124.
- On Location. In Situating Semantics: Essays in Honour of John Perry. MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
2007, pp. 251–393. - Pragmatism and Binding. In Semantics versus Pragmatics. Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2005, pp. 165–286. - A Century Later. In Mind 114, 2005, pp. 809–871.
- This, That, and the Other. In Descriptions and Beyond. Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2004, pp. 68–182. - No Plagiarism Here! Times Literary Supplement. February 9, 2001, pp. 12–13.
- Meaning, Truth, Ontology. In Interpreting Davidson. Stanford: CSLI, (2001) pp. 155–197.
- On Representing". In The Library of Living Philosophers: Donald Davidson. L. E. Hahn (ed.), Illinois: Open Court, (1999) pp. 656–669.
- Coloring and Composition. In Philosophy and Linguistics Boulder: Westview Press, 1999, pp. 35–82.
- Context and Communication. In Readings in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
(1997), pp. 415–474. - Logical Form and LF. In Noam Chomsky: Critical Assessments RoutledgeRoutledgeRoutledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
, 1993, pp. 788–838. - Term Limits. Philosophical Perspectives 7, 1993, pp. 89–124.
- Paul Grice and the Philosophy of Language. Linguistics and Philosophy 15, 5, 1992, pp. 509–59.
- Descriptive Pronouns and Donkey Anaphora. Journal of PhilosophyJournal of PhilosophyThe Journal of Philosophy is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy. Its stated purpose is "To publish philosophical articles of current interest and encourage the interchange of ideas, especially the exploration of the borderline between philosophy and other disciplines." The...
87, 3, 1990, pp. 113–150. - Meaning, Grammar, and Indeterminacy. Dialectica 41, 4, 1987, pp. 301–19.
On Neale's work
- Facts, Slingshots and Anti-Representationalism: On Stephen Neale’s Facing Facts. Edited by Gerhard Preyer and Georg Peter, Protosociology, Vol. 23.