What Was the Syntax-Semantics Debate in the Philosophy of Science About?

Lutz, Sebastian (2017): What Was the Syntax-Semantics Debate in the Philosophy of Science About? In: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 95, No. 2: pp. 319-352

Abstract

The debate between critics of syntactic and semantic approaches to the formalization of scientific theories has been going on for over 50 years. I structure the debate in light of a recent exchange between Hans Halvorson, Clark Glymour, and Bas van Fraassen and argue that the only remaining disagreement concerns the alleged difference in the dependence of syntactic and semantic approaches on languages of predicate logic. This difference turns out to be illusory.

• Item Type: Journal article
• ISSN: 0031-8205
• Language: English