Daniel Cohnitz and Jussi Haukioja, "Foundations for Metasemantics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
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What is metasemantics and why does it matter for the philosophy of language?
Hi everyone, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the founder of the New Books Network, and I'm also a historian. I used to be a history professor, and I love maps. So I'm especially happy to tell you that this episode is sponsored by What's Your Map, which was the winner of the best education podcast at the 2025 British Podcast Awards. What's Your Map is hosted by historian and prize-winning author, Professor Jerry Broughton. In each episode, he invites a guest to share. A map close to their heart and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. I can tell you I've listened and it's fascinating. The podcast is in its sixth series and is enjoyed by audiences around the globe. You can explore all the maps in the podcast at occulehyphenmundi.com while you listen.
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdork, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. I'm co-host of the channel along with Sarah Tyson and Blaine Newfeld. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books in a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Daniel Konitz, Professor of Philosophy at Utrecht University. And UC Haukyoya, Professor of Philosophy at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Their new book, Foundations for Meta-Semantics, is just out from Oxford University Press. The theory of semantics is a theory of what a person means when they use a word.
For example, that when someone uses the word cat, they refer to cats, or the name Beyoncé to refer to Beyoncé. A meta-semantic theory explains why a word means what it does. What makes it the case that when an English speaker says cat, they refer to cats. Externalism claims that facts about the world determine the semantic facts, while internalists hold that the facts about the speaker determine them. This internalist externalist debate has also been a leaning edge in the use of experimental methods in philosophy, also called X Phi, to provide empirical evidence from ordinary speakers that might be relevant to different philosophical theories. Konatz and Hau Yok Haukyoya approach the externalist-internist debate from the perspective of what they call meta-metasemantics, which is a theory of what makes it the case that externalism or exter internalism might be true of a speaker's uses.
In foundations for meta semantics, they argue for a view they call dispositionalist meta internalism, in which the internal dispositions of a speaker determine whether their uses are best explained by internalism or externalism. These dispositions include dispositions to use a term in a certain way, as well as dispositions to revise usage in response to new information. They also critically considered the role of thought experiments in these semantic debates and how X5 methods might be revised to get better data. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Daniel Konitz and Yusy Haukioya. Welcome to New Books in Philosophy.
Hello, Carrie. Thank you so much for inviting us.
Um, so this will be a very interesting um, you know, three part interview here with two authors of uh foundations for meta-semantics. Uh before we get into the the details of the book, uh perhaps you can tell us a bit about yourselves and, you know, as philosophers and then how this uh this collaboration came about.
Uh yeah, so maybe I start with uh telling a bit about myself.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is metasemantics and why does it matter for the philosophy of language?
0:00–5:56
2
How do Cohnitz and Haukioja introduce the problem of the foundations of reference?
5:56–13:23
3
What is dispositionalist meta‑internalism and how does it differ from meta‑externalism?
13:23–21:05
4
Why do the authors claim that internalist and externalist answers are both possible at the meta‑level?
21:05–33:16
5
How does experimental philosophy (X‑Phi) inform the debate between internalism and externalism?
33:16–49:39
6
Can large‑language models like ChatGPT be used to test meta‑semantic theories?
49:39–1:00:18
7
What methodological improvements do the authors suggest for studying speakers’ intuitions?
1:00:18–1:06:09
8
What future research directions do the authors envision after publishing Foundations for Metasemantics?
1:06:09–1:06:48
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