This chapter evaluates various general criticisms of Davidson's semantic program as well as Davidson's own defense of it. One criticism that particularly interests this chapter is that Davidson's semantics fails to assign a correct meaning to each sentence of its object language. Both Davidson and his critics thought that required response to such criticism is to add further constraints to ensure the desired goal. The chapter argues this debate is misguided. Instead, the chapter seeks to show Davidson had available to him in his paratactic account of indirect discourse the means to dissolve...

This chapter evaluates various general criticisms of Davidson's semantic program as well as Davidson's own defense of it. One criticism that particularly interests this chapter is that Davidson's semantics fails to assign a correct meaning to each sentence of its object language. Both Davidson and his critics thought that required response to such criticism is to add further constraints to ensure the desired goal. The chapter argues this debate is misguided. Instead, the chapter seeks to show Davidson had available to him in his paratactic account of indirect discourse the means to dissolve the debate.