A subdiscipline of philosophy.

Two traditions

  • Logistical tradition
    • Runs from Frege/Russell, through the Tractatus, Carnap, Tarski, Quine, David Lewis
    • Operative paradigm: formal calculi suitable for proofs about artificial symbolic languages
      • tarskian model theory as a paradigm of semantics
      • more powerful successor: possible worlds semantics
  • Anthropological tradition
    • Focuses on natural languages over artificial ones
    • Thinks of languages as a social practice characteristic of biological creatures like us
    • Dewey, early Heidegger, late Wittgenstein, Rorty.