Born in 1989, I obtained the Master's Degree at University of Verona under the supervision of Prof. Giorgio Graffi and then I get the PhD in Philosophy at University of Torino under the supervision of Prof. Diego Marconi. I have attended as speaker several international conferences and I have published research articles on international scientific journals. My research areas are theoretical linguistics, epistemology of linguistics, philosophy of language and generative linguistic theory. See my Google site https://sites.google.com/view/enricocipriani Supervisors: Prof. Giorgio Graffi - Prof. Diego Marconi
The paper is about Chomsky's interpretation of reference and his explanation of communication. Se... more The paper is about Chomsky's interpretation of reference and his explanation of communication. Section 1 presents Chomsky's criticisms of the notion of reference that is used in philosophy of language and the alternative interpretation that Chomsky proposes. Section 2 is devoted to Chomsky's account of communication. It will be argued that his account does not correspond to Davidson's. The conclusion provides a brief reflection about the role of formal semantics in Chomsky's thought.
In many works, Noam Chomsky has argued that there is a clear-cut distinction between common sense... more In many works, Noam Chomsky has argued that there is a clear-cut distinction between common sense notions and scientific notions, and that only the latter can enter in the conceptual domain of scientific inquiry. This distinction has been used by Chomsky to criticize the scientific status of many notions used in philosophy of language: according to Chomsky, many of these notions stay in the middle between common sense notions and scientific notions, so that they are useless for the naturalistic inquiry on language and mind. Focusing on Chomsky's criticisms to Hilary Putnam's semantic externalism and linguistic labor division theory, I will point out that Chomsky's criticism is in contrast with his own assumption that some common sense notions (i.e., those used in I-linguistics: faculty of language, language, generative procedure, etc.) can become scientific notions once that a specific definition is associated to them. In proposing this assumption, Chomsky implicitly follows Rudolf Carnap's notion of explication, a notion that makes Chomsky's objection to Putnam irrelevant. After that, I will directly examine Chomsky's assumption, and I will point out some crucial problems affecting it.
In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summar... more In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summarize Chomsky’s criticisms against the externalist interpretation of such notion, and I will then focus on the internalist (and syntactic) interpretation that the MIT linguist provides. Then I will focus on the relation between the internalist interpretation and the notion of truth, discussing in particular Casalegno and Hinzen’s objections: I will point out that truth does not represent a particular problem for the internalized reference. Finally, I will show how Chomsky explains, inside the internalist perspective, the phenomenon of communication. In Conclusions, I will sketch two important points.
Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2015
Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in phil... more Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in philosophy, ethics and social science, and has been presented and criticized in different ways and by different approaches. In this paper, I will provide two criticisms against Rawls's hypothesis, and I will express them by using modal logic and possible world semantics. My aim is to show how Rawls's experiment is "computationally impossible" and how modal logic and possible world theory can be useful in social choice theory.
La questione della relazione e distinzione tra scienza e filosofia è stata oggetto di profondo di... more La questione della relazione e distinzione tra scienza e filosofia è stata oggetto di profondo dibattito nella filosofia analitica del Novecento. In questa ricostruzione se ne ripercorre lo sviluppo da Wittgenstein a Chomsky, con un'attenzione particolare rivolta alla specificità dei linguaggi-e alla solidità e accuratezza delle loro enunciazioni-che sono a fondamento delle due branche del sapere.
The starting point of this work is the notion of explanatory adequacy. After summarizing and anal... more The starting point of this work is the notion of explanatory adequacy. After summarizing and analyzing the presentation that Chomsky gives of this notion in the first works of generative grammar, I consider the role that such notion has been playing in the construction of the theory of generative grammar and in the foundation of the Universal Grammar research program, focusing, in particular, on the last phase of generative grammar, i.e., minimalism.
In a 2014 paper, Watumull and colleagues discuss the notion of recursion as used in generative gr... more In a 2014 paper, Watumull and colleagues discuss the notion of recursion as used in generative grammar and highlight that embedding, a property of the structures generated by the generative procedure, must not be confused, is not synonymous with recursion, a property of the generative procedure. The authors use this distinction, often not enough considered in the literature, to defend Chomsky's Faculty of Language in a Narrow Sense hypothesis from criticisms which point out that unlimited recursion, understood as center-embedding, does not characterize many languages (the criticisms are due to Levinson, Everett, and many others). The authors' distinction between recursion and embedding is useful to defend the FLN hypothesis; however, it has deep, problematic consequences on Chomsky's own theory, as I will highlight.
In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summar... more In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summarize Chomsky’s criticisms against the externalist interpretation of such notion, and I will then focus on the internalist (and syntactic) interpretation that the MIT linguist provides. Then I will focus on the relation between the internalist interpretation and the notion of truth, discussing in particular Casalegno and Hinzen’s objections: I will point out that truth does not represent a particular problem for the internalized reference. Finally, I will show how Chomsky explains, inside the internalist perspective, the phenomenon of communication. In Conclusions, I will sketch two important points.
Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2015
Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in philosophy, ... more Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in philosophy, ethics and social science, and has been presented and criticized in different ways and by different approaches. In this paper, I will provide two criticisms against Rawls's hypothesis, and I will express them by using modal logic and possible world semantics. My aim is to show how Rawls's experiment is "computationally impossible" and how modal logic and possible world theory can be useful in social choice theory.
In this paper, I will focus on the debate between descriptivism and anti-descriptivism theory abo... more In this paper, I will focus on the debate between descriptivism and anti-descriptivism theory about proper names. In the introduction, I will propose an historical reconstruction of the debate, and focus in particular on Russell and Kripke's treatments of proper names. Strong criticisms will be advanced against Kripke's hypothesis of rigid-designator and, more clearly, against the consequent distinction between the epistemic and metaphysical level that Kripke proposes to explain identity assertions between proper names. Furthermore, I will argue, that, pace Kripke, Russellian treatment of proper names allows to capture all our semantic intuitions, and also those semantic interpretations which concern context-belief sentences. I will close the introduction by focusing on a criticism that Kripke rightly points out against an example that Russell proposes in his On Denoting. Section 2 will be devoted to Russellian solution: I will show that not only Russell's logical treatment of proper names allows to answer to Kripke's criticism to Russell's example, but also that such treatment can disambiguate and express all our semantic intuitions about Frege's puzzle sentence "Hesperus is Phosphorus." I will then show that, contrarily, Quinian solution (discussed in section 3) and Kripkian one (see section 4) are not satisfactory to capture our semantic knowledge about Frege's sentence. Furthermore, in section 5, I will focus on Kripke's distinction between epistemic and metaphysical level to deal with identity assertions between proper names, and I will logically show that such distinction is not plausible. In section 5, then, I will show that Russellian solution allows to explain context-belief sentences, contrarily to what Kripke thinks. In Conclusions, I will summarize what I have argued in the text.
European Journal of Literature and Linguistics, 2015
Chomskian UG hypothesis has been criticized from several points of view. In this paper, I will fo... more Chomskian UG hypothesis has been criticized from several points of view. In this paper, I will focus on some philosophical objections which have been advanced against the MIT linguist, and I will show that Chomsky's answers are adequate only for some of them. Furthermore, I will discuss about the epistemological status of Chomsky's assumptions and conceptions, and I will conclude that it is again unclear if generative grammar is a philosophical or an empirical theory.
My aim is to critically discuss Chomsky's position concerning the analytic-synthetic distinction ... more My aim is to critically discuss Chomsky's position concerning the analytic-synthetic distinction and necessary propositions. To do so, I present Chomsky's objection to Quine's criticism of the analyticsynthetic distinction, and I point out that Chomsky's defense of such a distinction can be efficacious only under the assumption of conceptual innateness. I then focus on Chomsky's analysis of necessary propositions. In particular, I present Chomsky's objection to Kripke's essentialism, and Chomsky's hypothesis that the distinction between necessary and contingent truths is determined by the structure of the conceptual system and its relations with other systems of common-sense understanding. I highlight that this hypothesis is not compatible with Chomsky's own objection to Kripke.
I provide a critical survey of the role that semantics took in the several models of generative g... more I provide a critical survey of the role that semantics took in the several models of generative grammar, since the 1950s until the Minimalist Program. I distinguish four different periods. In the first section, I focus on the role of formal semantics in generative grammar until the 1970s. In Section 2 I present the period of linguistic wars, when the role of semantics in linguistic theory became a crucial topic of debate. In Section 3 I focus on the formulation of conditions on transformations and Binding Theory in the 1970s and 1980s, while in the last Section I discuss the role of semantics in the minimalist approach. In this section, I also propose a semanticallybased model of generative grammar, which fully endorses minimalism and Chomsky's later position concerning the primary role of the semantic interface in the Universal Grammar modelization (Strong Minimalist Thesis). In the Discussion, I point out some theoretical problems deriving from Chomsky's internalist interpretation of model-theoretic semantics.
The aim of this book is to introduce the non-specialist reader to some of the most interesting pr... more The aim of this book is to introduce the non-specialist reader to some of the most interesting problems of philosophy of language and linguistics.
The paper is about Chomsky's interpretation of reference and his explanation of communication. Se... more The paper is about Chomsky's interpretation of reference and his explanation of communication. Section 1 presents Chomsky's criticisms of the notion of reference that is used in philosophy of language and the alternative interpretation that Chomsky proposes. Section 2 is devoted to Chomsky's account of communication. It will be argued that his account does not correspond to Davidson's. The conclusion provides a brief reflection about the role of formal semantics in Chomsky's thought.
In many works, Noam Chomsky has argued that there is a clear-cut distinction between common sense... more In many works, Noam Chomsky has argued that there is a clear-cut distinction between common sense notions and scientific notions, and that only the latter can enter in the conceptual domain of scientific inquiry. This distinction has been used by Chomsky to criticize the scientific status of many notions used in philosophy of language: according to Chomsky, many of these notions stay in the middle between common sense notions and scientific notions, so that they are useless for the naturalistic inquiry on language and mind. Focusing on Chomsky's criticisms to Hilary Putnam's semantic externalism and linguistic labor division theory, I will point out that Chomsky's criticism is in contrast with his own assumption that some common sense notions (i.e., those used in I-linguistics: faculty of language, language, generative procedure, etc.) can become scientific notions once that a specific definition is associated to them. In proposing this assumption, Chomsky implicitly follows Rudolf Carnap's notion of explication, a notion that makes Chomsky's objection to Putnam irrelevant. After that, I will directly examine Chomsky's assumption, and I will point out some crucial problems affecting it.
In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summar... more In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summarize Chomsky’s criticisms against the externalist interpretation of such notion, and I will then focus on the internalist (and syntactic) interpretation that the MIT linguist provides. Then I will focus on the relation between the internalist interpretation and the notion of truth, discussing in particular Casalegno and Hinzen’s objections: I will point out that truth does not represent a particular problem for the internalized reference. Finally, I will show how Chomsky explains, inside the internalist perspective, the phenomenon of communication. In Conclusions, I will sketch two important points.
Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2015
Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in phil... more Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in philosophy, ethics and social science, and has been presented and criticized in different ways and by different approaches. In this paper, I will provide two criticisms against Rawls's hypothesis, and I will express them by using modal logic and possible world semantics. My aim is to show how Rawls's experiment is "computationally impossible" and how modal logic and possible world theory can be useful in social choice theory.
La questione della relazione e distinzione tra scienza e filosofia è stata oggetto di profondo di... more La questione della relazione e distinzione tra scienza e filosofia è stata oggetto di profondo dibattito nella filosofia analitica del Novecento. In questa ricostruzione se ne ripercorre lo sviluppo da Wittgenstein a Chomsky, con un'attenzione particolare rivolta alla specificità dei linguaggi-e alla solidità e accuratezza delle loro enunciazioni-che sono a fondamento delle due branche del sapere.
The starting point of this work is the notion of explanatory adequacy. After summarizing and anal... more The starting point of this work is the notion of explanatory adequacy. After summarizing and analyzing the presentation that Chomsky gives of this notion in the first works of generative grammar, I consider the role that such notion has been playing in the construction of the theory of generative grammar and in the foundation of the Universal Grammar research program, focusing, in particular, on the last phase of generative grammar, i.e., minimalism.
In a 2014 paper, Watumull and colleagues discuss the notion of recursion as used in generative gr... more In a 2014 paper, Watumull and colleagues discuss the notion of recursion as used in generative grammar and highlight that embedding, a property of the structures generated by the generative procedure, must not be confused, is not synonymous with recursion, a property of the generative procedure. The authors use this distinction, often not enough considered in the literature, to defend Chomsky's Faculty of Language in a Narrow Sense hypothesis from criticisms which point out that unlimited recursion, understood as center-embedding, does not characterize many languages (the criticisms are due to Levinson, Everett, and many others). The authors' distinction between recursion and embedding is useful to defend the FLN hypothesis; however, it has deep, problematic consequences on Chomsky's own theory, as I will highlight.
In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summar... more In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summarize Chomsky’s criticisms against the externalist interpretation of such notion, and I will then focus on the internalist (and syntactic) interpretation that the MIT linguist provides. Then I will focus on the relation between the internalist interpretation and the notion of truth, discussing in particular Casalegno and Hinzen’s objections: I will point out that truth does not represent a particular problem for the internalized reference. Finally, I will show how Chomsky explains, inside the internalist perspective, the phenomenon of communication. In Conclusions, I will sketch two important points.
Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2015
Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in philosophy, ... more Rawls's thought experiment of initial position is one of the most discussed topic in philosophy, ethics and social science, and has been presented and criticized in different ways and by different approaches. In this paper, I will provide two criticisms against Rawls's hypothesis, and I will express them by using modal logic and possible world semantics. My aim is to show how Rawls's experiment is "computationally impossible" and how modal logic and possible world theory can be useful in social choice theory.
In this paper, I will focus on the debate between descriptivism and anti-descriptivism theory abo... more In this paper, I will focus on the debate between descriptivism and anti-descriptivism theory about proper names. In the introduction, I will propose an historical reconstruction of the debate, and focus in particular on Russell and Kripke's treatments of proper names. Strong criticisms will be advanced against Kripke's hypothesis of rigid-designator and, more clearly, against the consequent distinction between the epistemic and metaphysical level that Kripke proposes to explain identity assertions between proper names. Furthermore, I will argue, that, pace Kripke, Russellian treatment of proper names allows to capture all our semantic intuitions, and also those semantic interpretations which concern context-belief sentences. I will close the introduction by focusing on a criticism that Kripke rightly points out against an example that Russell proposes in his On Denoting. Section 2 will be devoted to Russellian solution: I will show that not only Russell's logical treatment of proper names allows to answer to Kripke's criticism to Russell's example, but also that such treatment can disambiguate and express all our semantic intuitions about Frege's puzzle sentence "Hesperus is Phosphorus." I will then show that, contrarily, Quinian solution (discussed in section 3) and Kripkian one (see section 4) are not satisfactory to capture our semantic knowledge about Frege's sentence. Furthermore, in section 5, I will focus on Kripke's distinction between epistemic and metaphysical level to deal with identity assertions between proper names, and I will logically show that such distinction is not plausible. In section 5, then, I will show that Russellian solution allows to explain context-belief sentences, contrarily to what Kripke thinks. In Conclusions, I will summarize what I have argued in the text.
European Journal of Literature and Linguistics, 2015
Chomskian UG hypothesis has been criticized from several points of view. In this paper, I will fo... more Chomskian UG hypothesis has been criticized from several points of view. In this paper, I will focus on some philosophical objections which have been advanced against the MIT linguist, and I will show that Chomsky's answers are adequate only for some of them. Furthermore, I will discuss about the epistemological status of Chomsky's assumptions and conceptions, and I will conclude that it is again unclear if generative grammar is a philosophical or an empirical theory.
My aim is to critically discuss Chomsky's position concerning the analytic-synthetic distinction ... more My aim is to critically discuss Chomsky's position concerning the analytic-synthetic distinction and necessary propositions. To do so, I present Chomsky's objection to Quine's criticism of the analyticsynthetic distinction, and I point out that Chomsky's defense of such a distinction can be efficacious only under the assumption of conceptual innateness. I then focus on Chomsky's analysis of necessary propositions. In particular, I present Chomsky's objection to Kripke's essentialism, and Chomsky's hypothesis that the distinction between necessary and contingent truths is determined by the structure of the conceptual system and its relations with other systems of common-sense understanding. I highlight that this hypothesis is not compatible with Chomsky's own objection to Kripke.
I provide a critical survey of the role that semantics took in the several models of generative g... more I provide a critical survey of the role that semantics took in the several models of generative grammar, since the 1950s until the Minimalist Program. I distinguish four different periods. In the first section, I focus on the role of formal semantics in generative grammar until the 1970s. In Section 2 I present the period of linguistic wars, when the role of semantics in linguistic theory became a crucial topic of debate. In Section 3 I focus on the formulation of conditions on transformations and Binding Theory in the 1970s and 1980s, while in the last Section I discuss the role of semantics in the minimalist approach. In this section, I also propose a semanticallybased model of generative grammar, which fully endorses minimalism and Chomsky's later position concerning the primary role of the semantic interface in the Universal Grammar modelization (Strong Minimalist Thesis). In the Discussion, I point out some theoretical problems deriving from Chomsky's internalist interpretation of model-theoretic semantics.
The aim of this book is to introduce the non-specialist reader to some of the most interesting pr... more The aim of this book is to introduce the non-specialist reader to some of the most interesting problems of philosophy of language and linguistics.
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