Ross Barham

‘Davidson’s Objective — Language and The Concept of Objectivity’ (PhD in Philosophy, 2018).

This thesis critically examines Donald Davidson’s claim that language plays a non-trivial role in explaining possession of the concept of objectivity. After showing that a priori arguments do not establish this claim, different versions of Davidson’s triangulation argument are developed and found wanting. Drawing on Michael Tomasello’s work on joint attention and Robert Brandom’s Inferentialist account of objectivity, the final chapter suggests how a naturalistic account of language and triangulation may nonetheless be essential to explaining possession of the concept of objectivity.

Supervisor: Dr Laura Schroeter