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Hobbes on the function of evaluative speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Thomas Holden
Thomas Holden*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
*
Email: tholden@philosophy.ucsb.edu
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Abstract

Hobbes’s interpreters have struggled to find a plausible semantics for evaluative language in his writings. I argue that this search is misguided. Hobbes offers neither an account of the reference of evaluative terms nor a theory of the truth-conditions for evaluative statements. Rather, he sees evaluative language simply as having the non-representational function of prescribing actions and practical attitudes, its superficially representational appearance notwithstanding. I marshal the evidence for this prescriptivist reading of Hobbes on evaluative language and show how it sidesteps various textual and philosophical problems that bedevil the traditional interpretations.

Keywords

Hobbeslanguagevaluenormativityspeech acts
Type
Distinguished Lecture
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 123 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2016

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