The case against semantic relativism

Abstract

This chapter presents reasons against semantic relativism. Semantic relativism is motivated by intuitions that are presumed to raise problems for traditional or contextualist semantics in contested domains of discourse. Intuition-based arguments are those based on competent speakers’ putative intuitions about seeming faultless disagreement, eavesdroppers, and retraction cases. I will organize the discussion in three parts. First, I shall provide a brief introduction to intuition-based arguments offered in favor of semantic relativism. Second, I shall indicate that there are ways for contextualism to explain the (appearance of) intuitions that support semantic relativism. Third, I shall review of experimental results and independent arguments that put into question the appeal of semantic relativism.