Questions for Reading Response #3
Philosophy 431
Due: 31 January 2013
O’Rourke
Name:
Please respond to the questions below after you have the assigned reading. Please type your
responses into this document, print it out, and submit it with your name on Thursday, 31 January
at the beginning of class.
1. For Tarski, which comes first, truth or meaning? That is, does he attempt to define truth
in terms of an antecedently understood notion of meaning, or define meaning in terms of
an antecedently understood notion of truth?
2. What is the notion of intensional isomorphism, introduced by Carnap?
3. True or False: Davidson believed that the referential axioms of truth theories state
“genuine facts” about the world.
4. In two or three sentences, explain how a sentence like (T) figures into Davidson’s theory
of meaning.
(T) ‘Snow is white’ is true if and only if snow is white.