Language and Rules: A Normative Approach to the Myth of the Given

JOSÉ GIROMINI

Dublín

Conferencia; Sellars Centenary Conference and Workshop; 2012

University College Dublin

My purpose in this paper is to present what I regard as the two fundamental elements that give rise to the Myth fo the Given. My method will consist in examining three ?episodes? of the myth in order to show the structural deficiencies they share. The most famous of these episodes is the one that I present in the third place. We find it in EPM (section VIII) and it deals, as is known, with the justification or authority of observational reports. I intend to show that this episode rests on the second one, which deals with the meaning of observational predicates. The problems we shall encounter, then, have to do with understanding how two normative concepts?meaning and justification?apply to language. And here lies the importance of the first episode; for it deals directly with the problem of the normativity of language, the problem, that is, of how it is possible for linguistic behavior to be correct or incorrect.