Paul Saka

Last updated
Paul Saka
Education University of Arizona (PhD), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (PhD), University of Chicago (BA)
Era 21st-century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
Institutions University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Theses
Main interests
philosophy of language, cognitive semantics

Paul Saka is an American scholar known for his multi-disciplinary work. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Associate Editor for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [1]

With one PhD in linguistics and another PhD in philosophy, his two dissertations argue against truth-conditional semantics and for a mentalist theory of meaning. The negative part of his program has been sharpened by his “argument from ignorance”. [2] The positive part of his program includes a pioneering contribution on the semantics of pejorative language, [3] plus work on ambiguity, [4] the liar paradox, [5] the problem of opacity, [6] and quotation and the use-mention distinction. [7] [8] [9] [10]

Books

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References

  1. "Homepage".
  2. “The Argument from Ignorance against Truth-Conditional Semantics.” American Philosophical Quarterly 44.2: 157-70 (2007)
  3. How to Think about Meaning, ch. 5. Springer (2007).
  4. How to Think about Meaning, ch. 6. Springer (2007).
  5. How to Think about Meaning, ch. 8. Springer (2007).
  6. "Superman Semantics." In , Springer (2016).
  7. “Quotation and the Use-Mention Distinction.” Mind 107.425: 113-35 (1998).
  8. “The Demonstrative and Identity Theories of Quotation.” Journal of Philosophy 103.9: 452-71 (2006).
  9. “Quotation.” Philosophy Compass 8.10: 935-49 (2013).
  10. “Blah, blah, blah: Quasi-Quotation and Unquotation.” In The Semantics and Pragmatics of Quotation, pp. 35-64, edited by Paul Saka & Michael Johnson. Springer (2017).