Holistic semantics does not require denying reference or truth, contra the post-structuralist route.

Evidence

Contemporary analytical philosophy of language contains theories of meaning as vigorously anti-atomistic as anything in the Saussurian tradition. In the writings of Quine, for example, language is conceived holistically, as ‘a fabric of sentences’. Yet the concepts of reference, and still more of truth are central to the single most ambitious attempt to develop a holistic theory of meaning, that of Donald Davidson. The meaning of sentences is given by their truthconditions, Davidson argues, and truth in turn is to be defined, following Tarski, by means of the concept of satisfaction, the relationship between predicates and the objects of which they are true. ‘The study of sense thus comes down to the study of reference.’ — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 325

Categorization

• XREF: Directly counters Derrida’s holistic anti-referentialism using Quine, Davidson, and Tarski — a key move in the analytic/continental divide Jameson’s theory partly rests on. — connects to: Holism about meaning need not abandon reference or truth. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 325; The rejection of atomism does not force abandoning reference.; Holism and dualism should be fluid complements, not rigid opposites

Broader Connections

• The rejection of atomism does not force abandoning reference. #corroborates (0.85)
• Holism and dualism should be fluid complements, not rigid opposites #expands (0.72)