Occasion-Sensitivity Selected Essays
Occasion-Sensitivity Selected Essays by Charles Travis, published by OUP Oxford on February 28, 2008, comprises 318 pages and is presented in English. This collection features a series of essays where Travis articulates his unique perspective on the relationship between thought and language, centering on the concept of ‘occasion-sensitivity.’ He explores how the meaning of words is shaped by their ability to contribute to various conditions of correctness, particularly truth conditions, challenging traditional views on the connection between meaning and truth.
In these essays, readers will find an in-depth examination of how linguistic forms can express a multitude of thoughts, and conversely, how a single thought can be conveyed through numerous distinct linguistic expressions. Travis emphasizes the implications of this approach for linguistic theory and its relevance to longstanding philosophical inquiries. The work engages with topics in linguistics, philosophy, and epistemology, providing a nuanced understanding of how language functions in relation to thought.
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Charles Travis presents a series of essays in which he has developed his distinctive view of the relation of thought to language. The key idea is ‘occasion-sensitivity’: what it is for words to express a given concept is for them to be apt for contributing to any of many different conditions of correctness (notably truth conditions). Since words mean what they do by expressing a given concept, it follows that meaning does not determine truth conditions. This view ties thoughts less tightly to the linguistic forms which express them than traditional views of the matter, and in two directions: a given linguistic form, meaning fixed, may express an indefinite variety of thoughts; one thought can be expressed in an indefinite number of syntactically and semantically distinct ways. Travis highlights the importance of this view for linguistic theory, and shows how it gives new form to a variety of traditional philosophical problems.
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