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Document Details :

Title: The Occamization of 'Meaning'
Subtitle: Ryle and Brentano
Author(s): DEWALQUE, Arnaud
Journal: Logique et Analyse
Volume: 256    Date: 2021   
Pages: 511-532
DOI: 10.2143/LEA.256.0.3290356

Abstract :
To Occamize a nominal expression N is to show that, despite grammatical appearances, N does not name, or denote, an entity. This article argues that the Occamization of ‘meaning’, which was central to Gilbert Ryle’s meta-philosophy, had already been advanced by Franz Brentano. The core thesis of the article is that Brentano’s notion of ‘content’, albeit different from that of linguistic rules, does a similar job of eliminating expendable entities. If the meaning of a linguistic expression is not an entity at all, then the question as to what kind of entity it is - what I shall call the Locke-Frege problem - turns out to be a pseudo-problem and is better dispensed with.

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