Open AccessBiolinguistics and Platonism: Contradictory or Consilient?
Author(s) -
Jeffrey Watumull
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
biolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1450-3417
DOI - 10.5964/bioling.8969
Subject(s) - platonism , generative grammar , turing , ontology , infinity , object (grammar) , epistemology , basis (linear algebra) , computer science , philosophy of language , semantics (computer science) , philosophy , linguistics , mathematics , metaphysics , programming language , mathematical analysis , geometry
It has been argued that language is a Platonic object, and therefore that a biolinguistic ontology is incoherent. In particular, the notion of language as a system of discrete infinity has been argued to be inconsistent with the assumption of a physical (finite) basis for language. These arguments are flawed. Here I demonstrate that biolinguistics and mathematical Platonism are not
mutually exclusive and contradictory, but in fact mutually reinforcing and consilient in a coherent and compelling philosophy of language. This consilience is effected by Turing’s proof of the coherency of a finitely procedure generative of infinite sets.