Meta Ontology

The starting point of this paper is the idea that linguistic representation is the result of a global process: a process of interaction of a community of cognitive-linguistic agents, with one another and with the environment. I maintain that the study of truth, meaning and related notions should be addressed without losing perspective of this process, and I oppose the `static' or `analytic' approach, which is fundamentally based on our own knowledge of the conventional meaning of words and sentences, and the ability of using them that we have as competent speakers. I argue that the analytic perspective is responsible for five recurring difficulties in truthmaker theory: (1) the lack of attention to the difference of explanatory role between the distinct notions proposed as primary truthbearer; (2) the adscription of purely extra-linguistic truthmakers to `synthetic truths', ignoring the contribution of the linguistic factor; (3) the adscription of purely linguistic truthmakers to `logical' and `analytic truths', ignoring the contribution of the worldly factor; (4) the difficulties in the search for minimal truthmakers; (5) the problems in the treatment of `negative facts' and of other `logically complex facts'. I do not provide an account of how to solve these difficulties, but I do show how the `process model' helps to clear up confusion regarding them