distinguished logician, Rudolf
JL Carnap, develops in this book a
new method of semantical meaning
^analysis. After giving a detailed criti-
cal discussion of the traditional meth-
od, according to which any expression
of language (a word, a phrase, or a
sentence) is regarded as a name of one
unique entity (a thing, a property, a
class, a relation, a proposition, a fact,
etc.), Mr. Carnap concludes that the
various forms of this method of the
name-relation lead to numerous diffi-
culties and complications.
He proposes a new approach which he
calls the method of extension and in-
tension. The meaning of any expression
is analyzed into two meaning com-
ponents, the intension, which is ap-
prehended by the understanding of the
expression, and the extension, which is
determined by empirical investigation.
As one important application of this
new semantical method, Mr. Carnap
lays the foundation of a new system of
modal logic, that is, a theory of con-
cepts like necessity and contingency,
possibility and impossibility, which
philosophers and logicians will find
valuable in solving many puzzling]
problems.
A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic
