Demystifying Meaning: A note on Horwich’s Meaning

Guy Longworth

As a use-theorist, Paul Horwich claims that the meaning of a word supervenes on some fundamental class of the use-properties of that word. In order to sustain this claim, he is forced to respond to Saul Kripke’s argument that the use-properties of words cannot determine their meanings. I allow that Horwich’s response is successful as far as it goes, but that Kripke’s attack can be usefully reformulated. It is my contention that the reformulation presents the use-theorist with serious difficulties. The challenge presented to the use-theorist is to avoid those difficulties without either revising our commonsense conception of meaning or failing to meet the stated aim of demystifying meaning.