Illocutionary Disagreement in the Aesthetic Realm

Dan Zeman

doi:10.14394/filnau.2022.0032

Autor

Dan Zeman Uniwersytet Warszawski, Wydział Filozofii https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-0042

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14394/filnau.2022.0032

Słowa kluczowe:

predicates of taste, aesthetic adjectives, faultless disagreement, illocutionary disagreement, evaluations

Abstrakt

A recent view about disagreement (Karczewska 2021) takes it to consist in the tension arising from proposals and refusals of these proposals to impose certain commitments on the interlocutors in a conversation. This view has been proposed with the aim of solving the problem that “faultless disagreement” – a situation in which two interlocutors are intuited to be both in disagreement and not at fault – poses for contextualism about predicates of taste.
In this paper, I consider whether this view applies equally well to disagreements involving aesthetic adjectives. I show, first, that it applies quite straightforwardly to predicates like “beautiful,” which presumably generate faultless disagreement. However, aesthetic adjectives like “beautiful” don’t exhaust the aesthetic sphere. A term like “balanced,” for example, while still perspectival, is said to have a more “objective” feel and usually doesn’t generate faultless disagreement: when the novice and the expert disagree on using such a term, we take it that the expert is right and the novice is wrong. I argue that Karczewska’s view has trouble explaining this difference in the profile of the two types of aesthetic predicates vis-à-vis the generation of disagreement. I also consider possible ways of coping with this problem, but I then reject them and propose a different one that is suitable for most views in the debate.

Bibliografia

Austin J. L. (1962), How to Do Things with Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Baker C. (2014), “The Role of Disagreement in Semantic Theory,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92, 37–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2013.795178

Beddor B. and Egan A. (2018), “Might Do Better: Flexible Relativism and the QUD,” Semantics and Pragmatics 11(7). https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.11.7

Belleri D. (2014), “Disagreement and Dispute,” Philosophia 42, 289–307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-013-9498-2

Berškytė J. (2022), Expressing Disagreement, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Manchester.

Brandom R. (1983), “Asserting,” Noûs 17(4), 637–650. https://doi.org/10.2307/2215086

Brogaard B. (2008), “Moral Contextualism and Moral Relativism,” The Philosophical Quarterly 58, 385–409. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9213.2007.543.x

Brogaard B. (2017), “A Semantic Framework for Aesthetic Expressions” [in:] Semantics of Aesthetic Judgment, J. O. Young (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 121–139. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198714590.003.0007

Cappelen H. and Hawthorne J. (2009), Relativism and Monadic Truth, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560554.001.0001

DeRose K. (1992), “Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52(4): 913–929. https://doi.org/10.2307/2107917

Dinges A. (2022), “Non-indexical Contextualism, Relativism and Retraction” [in:] Perspectives on Taste: Aesthetics, Language, Metaphysics, and Experimental Philosophy, J. Wyatt, J. Zakkou, and D. Zeman (eds.), New York: Routledge, 193–206. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003184225-13

Dreier J. (1990), “Internalism and Speaker Relativism,” Ethics 101(1): 6–26. https://doi.org/10.1086/293257

Dummett M. (1973), Frege: Philosophy of Language, London: Duckworth.

Egan A., Hawthorne J., and Weatherson B. (2005), “Epistemic Modals in Context” [in:] Contextualism in Philosophy: Knowledge, Meaning, and Truth, G. Preyer and G. Peter (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 131–170.

Ferrari F. (2016), “Disagreement about Taste and Alethic Suberogation,” Philosophical Quarterly 66(264), 516–535. https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqv116

von Fintel K. and Gillies A. (2008), “CIA Leaks,” Philosophical Review 117(1), 77–98. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2007-025

Glanzberg M. (2007), “Context, Content, and Relativism,” Philosophical Studies 136, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-007-9145-5

Glanzberg M. (2022), “Judges, Experiencers, and Taste,” Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2022.2135876

Huvenes T. T. (2012), “Varieties of Disagreement and Predicates of Taste,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 90, 167–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2010.550305

Kaplan D. (1989), “Demonstratives” [in:] Themes from Kaplan, J. Almog, J. Perry, and H. Wettstein (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 481–563.

Karczewska N. (2021), “Illocutionary Disagreement in Faultless Disagreement,” Organon F 28(3), 531–556. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2021.28303

Khoo J. (2017), “The Disagreement Challenge to Contextualism” [in:] The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism, J. Ichikawa (ed.), London: Routledge, 257–271. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315745275-21

Kneer M. (2021), “Predicates of Personal Taste: Empirical Data,” Synthese 199, 6455–6471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03077-9

Knobe J. and Yalcin S. (2014), “Epistemic Modals and Context: Experimental Data,” Semantics and Pragmatics 7, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.7.10

Kölbel M. (2004a), “Faultless Disagreement,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 104, 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0066-7373.2004.00081.x

Kölbel M. (2004b), “Indexical Relativism vs Genuine Relativism,” International Journal of Philosophical Studies 12, 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/0967255042000243966

Kölbel M. (2009), “The Evidence for Relativism,” Synthese 166, 375–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-007-9281-7

Kompa N. (2005), “The Semantics of Knowledge Attributions,” Acta Analytica 20(1), 16–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-005-1001-7

Lasersohn P. (2005), “Context Dependence, Disagreement, and Predicates of Personal Taste,” Linguistics and Philosophy 28, 643–686. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-005-0596-x

Lasersohn P. (2009), “Relative Truth, Speaker Commitment and Control of Implicit Arguments,” Synthese 166, 359–374. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-007-9280-8

Lasersohn P. (2016), Subjectivity and Perspective in Truth-Theoretic Semantics, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573677.001.0001

López de Sa D. (2015), “Expressing Disagreement: A Presuppositional Indexical Contextualist Relativist Account,” Erkenntnis 80(supplement), 153–165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-014-9664-3

MacFarlane J. (2005), “Making Sense of Relative Truth,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 105(3), 321–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9264.2005.00178.x

MacFarlane J. (2009), “Nonindexical Contextualism,” Synthese 166, 231–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-007-9286-2

MacFarlane J. (2014), Assessment Sensitivity: Relative Truth and Its Applications, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682751.001.0001

Marques T. (2018), “Retractions,” Synthese 195, 3335–3359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0852-8

Marques T. and García-Carpintero M. (2014), “Disagreement about Taste: Commonality Presuppositions and Coordination,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92(4), 701–723. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2014.922592

McNally L. and Stojanovic I. (2017), “Aesthetic Adjectives” [in:] Semantics of Aesthetic Judgment, J. O. Young (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 17–37. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198714590.003.0002

Palmira M. (2015), “The Semantic Significance of Faultless Disagreement,” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 96(3), 349–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/papq.12038

Raffman D. (2016), “Relativism, Retraction, and Evidence,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 92(1), 171–178. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12264

Recanati F. (2007), Perspectival Thought: A Plea for Moderate Relativism, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230532.001.0001

Schaffer J. (2011), “Perspective in Taste Predicates and Epistemic Modals” [in:] Epistemic Modality, A. Egan and B. Weatherson (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 179–226. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199591596.003.0007

Searle J. and Vanderveken D. (1985), “Speech Acts and Illocutionary Logic” [in:] Logic, Thought, and Action: Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science, D. Vanderveken (ed.), vol. 2, Springer, 109–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3167-X_5

Silk A. (2016), Discourse Contextualism: A Framework for Contextualist Semantics and Pragmatics, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198783923.001.0001

Smith B. C. (2010), “Relativism, Disagreement, and Predicates of Personal Taste” [in:] Context-Dependence, Perspective and Relativity, F. Recanati, I. Stojanovic, and N. Villanueva (eds.), Berlin–New York: De Gruyter Mouton, 195–224. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110227772.3.195

Snyder E. (2013), “Binding, Genericity, and Predicates of Personal Taste,” Inquiry 56, 278–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2013.784485

Stalnaker R. (1978), “Assertion,” Syntax and Semantics 9, 315–332. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368873_013

Stojanovic I. (2007), “Talking about Taste: Disagreement, Implicit Arguments, and Relative Truth,” Linguistics and Philosophy 30, 691–706. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-008-90305

Stojanovic I. (2017), “Context and Disagreement,” Cadernos de Estudos Linguisticos 59(1), 7–22. https://doi.org/10.20396/cel.v59i1.8648515

Williams B. A. O. (1966), “Consistency and Realism,” Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 40, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/aristoteliansupp/40.1.1

Zakkou J. (2019), Faultless Disagreement: A Defense of Contextualism in the Realm of Personal Taste, Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783465143475

Zeman D. (2017), “Contextualist Answers to the Challenge from Disagreement,” Phenomenology and Mind 12, 62–73.