The Syntax of the Real: Beyond Semantics and Its Dialectics

If the old existentialism said that existence precedes essence, the new existentialism articulated by The Syntax of the Real says that syntax precedes semantics. As opposed to the history of philosophy, which has been dominated semantico-centric ontologies, The Syntax of Real endeavors to articulate (perhaps the first) syntactic ontology. One of the most important theses of our time was articulated by the late John Haugeland. This thesis states that if you take care of the syntax, the semantics come for free. While Haugeland understood this thesis as one intervening in philosophy of mind and relating to the nature of artificial intelligence, The Syntax of Real both critiques of Haugeland’s understand of his own thesis and articulates its actual ontological implications beyond its relevance to the nature of the mental. Our understanding of syntax must be broadened beyond the linguistic determination of this term if we are to grasp the nature of the real. After detailing the inherent problems of semantic ontologies, this manuscript deduces the very nature of the real from the point of departure of all post-Cartesian thought—the cogito. Semantic nihilism is not advocated. Rather as opposed to other theories of the semantic, a theory of operational semantics is elucidated. The Syntax of the Real articulates its vision both via engagement with well-known philosophers (for instance, the neo-Meinongian theories of the wunderkinder of contemporary European Philosophy, Markus Gabriel and Tristan Garcia, are subjected to critique) as well as pop culture (for example, an episode of the original Star Trek is analyzed and an engagement with the recent film Arrival makes up the conclusion). Warning: This text is not an attempt to articulate or analyze the obscurantist onto-babble of Francois Laruelle. Its orientation, if anything, is Lacanian. Table of Contents §1. Beyond the Semantico-centrism of Philosophy: Towards a Syntactic Ontology §2. If You Get the Syntax Right, the Semantics Come for Free §3. Syntax from the Perspective of Linguistics §4. Semantico-centrism in Linguistics §5. The Primacy of the Syntactic §6. Semanticist Ontology §7. The Problems with Semanticism §8. The Computational Theory of Mind §9. Fodor’s Mistaken Guide to the Mind §10. The Actuality of Thought: From Criticisms of the Computational Theory of Mind to Existence in Itself §11. Where It Thinks, I Am Not: Deducing the Syntax of the Real §12. The Syntax of the Real §13. The Misadventures of Captain Obvious: John Searle, the Current Balding King of Semanticism §14. Deconstruction is the Deconstruction of Semantics §15. Structural Semantics §16. Operational Semantics §17. The Implications of Hegelian Anti-Platonism: Dialectical Semanticism §18. The Failure of Hegelian Anti-Pythagoreanism §19. Tzimtzum §20. Bidding Adieu to Badiou: A Critique of the Ontology of the Event §21. Fields of Semantic Sense: The Wunderkind Returns Us to Semanticism §22. Neo-Meinongianism §23. The Return of the Bishop: Berkeleyianism Today §24. Not Even Nietzscheanism is Dead §25. Nominalism §26. The Truth of Saussure §27. On the Origins of Language §28. The Arrival of the Brain Code