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"Convention" was immediately recognized as a major contribution to the subject and its significance has remained undiminished since its first publication in 1969. Lewis analyzes social conventions as regularities in the resolution of recurring coordination problems - situations characterized by interdependent decision processes in which common interests are at stake. Here, conventions are contrasted with other kinds of regularity, and conventions governing systems of communication are given special attention. This book is of central importance to philosophers, linguists, social scientists, legal theorists, and anyone interested in the role of convention in the function of social behavior and language.
"Convention" was immediately recognized as a major contribution to the subject and its significance has remained undiminished since its first publication in 1969. Lewis analyzes social conventions as regularities in the resolution of recurring coordination problems - situations characterized by interdependent decision processes in which common interests are at stake. Here, conventions are contrasted with other kinds of regularity, and conventions governing systems of communication are given special attention. This book is of central importance to philosophers, linguists, social scientists, legal theorists, and anyone interested in the role of convention in the function of social behavior and language.
Acknowledgements.
Foreword by W.V. Quine.
Introduction.
I. Coordination and Convention.
Sample Coordination Problems.
Analysis of Coordination Problems.
Solving Coordination Problems.
Convention.
Sample Conventions.
II. Convention Refined.
Common Knowledge.
Knowledge of Conventions.
Alternatives to Convention.
Degrees of Convention.
Consequences of Conventions.
III. Convention Contrasted.
Agreement.
Social Contracts.
Norms.
Rules.
Conformative Behavior.
Imitation.
Meaning of Signals.
IV. Convention and Communication.
Sample Signals.
Analysis of Signaling.
Verbal Signaling.
Conventional Meaning of Signals.
V. Conventions of Language.
Possible Languages.
Grammars.
Semantics in a Possible Language.
Conventions of Truthfulness.
Semantics in a Population.
Conclusion.
Index.
David Lewis (1941–2001) was Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. His publications include Counterfactuals (reissued by Blackwell 2000), On the Plurality of Worlds (reissued by Blackwell, 2000), Parts of Classes (1991), and numerous articles in metaphysics and other areas. Many of his writings are available in his Collected Papers.
"This book is my attempt at an analysis of our common, established
concept of convention, so that you will recognize that it explains
what you must have in mind when you say that language is governed
by conventions. Language is only one among many activities governed
by conventions that we did not create by agreeing and that we
cannot describe." David Lewis
"Readers will be indebted to the author of this book."
Philosophical Quarterly
"The notion of convention has served philosophers since Aristotle
as a convenient exploration of the arbitrary character of
referential word meaning. In 1936 Willard Quine, pursuing the
notion of analyticity, called attention to the emptiness of this
explanation. David Lewis has attempted to re-establish the notion
of convention as a partial explanation of analytic truth [and his]
explication of "convention" is a tour de force of Humean analysis."
Philosophy and Rhetoric
"This book has been published for quite some time. Its significant
contribution is no longer in question [and it will] remain a
central reference for discussions on the nature of conventions. An
excellent book for teaching purposes." Australasian Journal of
Philosophy
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