March 6, 1974

Linguist and philosopher Jerrold J. Katz from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lectured on “Where Things Now Stand with the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction.” The analytic-synthetic distinction, as formulated by Immanuel Kant, distinguished between propositions whose predicate were contained within their subject and those whose subjects did not contain their predicates.

Professor Katz, who spoke at Vassar on “Inference and Opacity” in November 1967, defined the relationship between syntax (word arrangement) and semantics (meaning) in Semantic Theory (1972).