Abstract

This chapter aims to be an introduction to the philosophy of language and presents some major topics belonging to this field: the difference between use and mention, Frege’s notions of Sinn (sense) and Bedeutung (reference), Mannoury’s significs, speech acts, definite descriptions, Berry’s and Grelling’s paradox, the theory of direct reference, Kant’s notions of analytic versus synthetic, logicism, logical positivism, presuppositions, Wittgenstein on meaning, syntax - semantics - pragmatics, conversational implicature, conditionals, Leibniz, de dicto - de re distinction, and grammars. It is fair to say that the Dutch mathematician Gerrit Mannoury (1867 - 1956) invented the notion of speech act long before Austin, Searle and others used this notion. In the subsection on Logicism we explain that - contrary to what many philosophers of science claim even nowadays - Kant was right in asserting that mathematical statements are not analytic, but synthetic.