Disagreement and Meaning

This chapter approaches the notion of disagreement from the perspective of semantics and the philosophy of language. It first provides a semantic characterization of disagreement and then turns to the intensely discussed phenomenon of “merely verbal disagreement.” The most important aspect of this phenomenon in the present context is how it visualizes the relationship between language and propositional attitudes in view of disagreement. The chapter reviews some recent efforts to define the notion of merely verbal disagreement and argues that they all point to the deeper question about the nature of disagreement at the level of rational attitudes.