We've read several articles by Jerry Fodor in my Philosophy of Language class. His style is probably how we'd all like to write if we could get away with it as gracefully as he does. This quote is from the introduction of "Why Meaning (Probably) Isn't Conceptual Role" (coauthored with Ernest Lepore):
Accordingly, this paper is about not semantics but the philosophy of language. Some of us have been poking around in the basement of meaning theory, and we seem to have discovered a large, nasty crack; as far as we can tell, one of the foundation stones is coming unstuck. We thought we'd better tell you about it before things get worse.
We'll proceed as follows: First we'll try to say where in the foundations the problem is located; then we'll try to say what the problem is; and then we'll make a suggestion or two about what to do about the problem. The first part of the discussion will be very broad; the second part will be rather more specific; the third part will be practically nonexistent.
Here goes.
Posted by linnea at October 14, 2007 8:29 PMI really like the way this guy writes. Very matter-of-fact, yet he makes you feel like if you don't keep reading, you are going to miss something worthwhile. Dad
Posted by: sperlonga at October 16, 2007 10:29 PM