| Abstract: | Wittgenstein's rule-following problem presents a powerful and quite general argument against most forms of traditional semantics. At stake is the relationship between what we learn when we learn an expression and our subsequent use of that expression. There have been various accounts of this relation. For example, a Fregean might say that when we learn a word, we grasp its sense, that the sense determines the reference, and that we then use the word to refer to its referent. In contrast, a modern day antirealist might say that we learn the word's assertability conditions and that we then use the word when those conditions obtain. Around the period of the Blue Book, Wittgenstein himself seemed inclined toward the view that language learning involved the acquisition of semantic rules that guide future usage. If correct, the rule-following argument would undermine all three of these accounts. |
