Is English inconsistent?

Erkenntnis 15 (3):343 - 347 (1980)
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Abstract

The significance of the semantical paradoxes for natural languages is examined. If Tarski’s reflections on the issue are correct, English is inconsistent. Paul Ziff responds to Tarskian reflections by arguing to the conclusion that no natural language is or can be inconsistent. The authors reject Ziff’s argument, but they defend something similar to its conclusion: no language, natural or otherwise, is or can be inconsistent in the way that Tarski holds languages capable of formulating the Epimenides are inconsistent.

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Author Profiles

Charles Sayward
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Philip Hugly
University of California, Berkeley (PhD)

Citations of this work

In Defence of Dialetheism: A Reply to Beziau and Tkaczyk.Ben Martin - forthcoming - Logic and Logical Philosophy.
Tarski and the metalinguistic liar.Greg Ray - 2003 - Philosophical Studies 115 (1):55 - 80.
More about the liar.Colin Howson - 1982 - Erkenntnis 17 (2):263 - 265.

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References found in this work

The semantic conception of truth and the foundations of semantics.Alfred Tarski - 1943 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 4 (3):341-376.
The Semantic Conception of Truth.Alfred Tarski - 2005 - In José Medina & David Wood (eds.), Truth. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

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