Interpretability, Perceptual Sensibilities and Triangulation
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Tomáš Marvan
Abstract
The paper examines the question whether the perceptual and discriminatory capacities of a creature and its disposition to react to things and events determine the nature and limits of what it is able to communicate and understand. Does a significant divergence in perceptual and discriminatory sensibilities of two creatures threaten the possibility of their mutual comprehensibility? It is argued, with the help of Donald Davidson's recent idea of ‘triangulation’, that this is indeed the case. By introducing into his theoretical framework the notion of triangulation as a necessary precondition of mastering a language, Davidson is forced to admit the possibility of a breakdown of communication between creatures that do not have sufficiently similar evolutionary histories—his own claims to the contrary nothwithstanding. And this, in turn, seems to threaten his claims about the impossibility of the notion of a language that we could not interpret in our own terms.
© Philosophia Press 2003
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- What kind of liberal is Martha Nussbaum?
- Political Liberalism and Respect: A Response to Linda Barclay
- Irreality of Fact
- Discursive conditions and contextual presuppositions. Habermas versus Apel
- Interpretability, Perceptual Sensibilities and Triangulation
- Hämnd, vedergällning och straff
- Davidson, Truth, and Semantic Unity
- John Dewey and Liberalism
- Review Essay
- Finding One's Way Into the Tractatus
- Book Reviews
- David L Hildebrand, Beyond Realism and Antirealism: John Dewey and the Neopragmatists. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2003. 241 pp.
- Charles Taylor and Nicholas H. Smith on human constants and transcendental arguments
- Nykänen, Hannes: The ‘I’, the ‘You’ and the Soul. An Ethics of Conscience. Doctoral dissertation. Åbo Akademi University Press, 2002. 476 + viii pp.
- Tanker i anledning af 2 nye Nietzsche-bøger: en anmeldelse
- Orbituary
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- What kind of liberal is Martha Nussbaum?
- Political Liberalism and Respect: A Response to Linda Barclay
- Irreality of Fact
- Discursive conditions and contextual presuppositions. Habermas versus Apel
- Interpretability, Perceptual Sensibilities and Triangulation
- Hämnd, vedergällning och straff
- Davidson, Truth, and Semantic Unity
- John Dewey and Liberalism
- Review Essay
- Finding One's Way Into the Tractatus
- Book Reviews
- David L Hildebrand, Beyond Realism and Antirealism: John Dewey and the Neopragmatists. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2003. 241 pp.
- Charles Taylor and Nicholas H. Smith on human constants and transcendental arguments
- Nykänen, Hannes: The ‘I’, the ‘You’ and the Soul. An Ethics of Conscience. Doctoral dissertation. Åbo Akademi University Press, 2002. 476 + viii pp.
- Tanker i anledning af 2 nye Nietzsche-bøger: en anmeldelse
- Orbituary
