I disagree with your approach of assuming linguistic reductionism. It seems to me that we ought to figure out the intended meanings of each possible word/phrase/sentence, and then conclude that reductionism is true if all language either refers to math and physics, or is clearly meaningless (and we can understand why we thought they had meaning).
I also have doubts about Luke’s linguistic approach, but not on account of reductionism. Reductionism is working well enough elsewhere that it should be the hypothesis of first resort here. In contrast to what you write, I doubt the relevance of intended meanings at all. I prefer an attempt to capture the referents, taking a page from successful scientific reductions.
When Mendel discovered his laws of inheritance, he spoke of heredity “factors”. Centuries later Crick and Watson and other scientists made discoveries and hypotheses that amounted, roughly, to the claim that Mendel’s factors are sequences of amino acids in DNA molecules. Nobody needed to re-read Mendel’s work or examine his cultural context to determine his “original intent”. Rather, they posited the equivalence and found that it made good sense of Mendel’s factors and the laws in which they were invoked.
Or take ball lightning. The phenomenon is rare and unpredictable, and it may be questionable whether there is really anything to answer to that name. To answer the question of what, if anything, ball lightning is, let’s not get various stipulative definitions from various people. Instead, let’s try some hypotheses on for size: let’s generate some buoyant plasma formations, or some obstructed aerodynamic vortices. Let’s see if the vast majority of reports of ball lightning can be explained by one or more of these phenomena. If so, we have discovered what ball lightning is, and linguistic stipulations are beside the point.
Of course, there’s no guarantee such an approach can work. But there’s no guarantee that stipulative definitions will get us anywhere, either. Stipulation tempts definers to pretend to greater access to their conceptual structures than they actually possess. If they resist that temptation, they will probably resist stipulation too, for lack of use.
I also have doubts about Luke’s linguistic approach, but not on account of reductionism. Reductionism is working well enough elsewhere that it should be the hypothesis of first resort here. In contrast to what you write, I doubt the relevance of intended meanings at all. I prefer an attempt to capture the referents, taking a page from successful scientific reductions.
When Mendel discovered his laws of inheritance, he spoke of heredity “factors”. Centuries later Crick and Watson and other scientists made discoveries and hypotheses that amounted, roughly, to the claim that Mendel’s factors are sequences of amino acids in DNA molecules. Nobody needed to re-read Mendel’s work or examine his cultural context to determine his “original intent”. Rather, they posited the equivalence and found that it made good sense of Mendel’s factors and the laws in which they were invoked.
Or take ball lightning. The phenomenon is rare and unpredictable, and it may be questionable whether there is really anything to answer to that name. To answer the question of what, if anything, ball lightning is, let’s not get various stipulative definitions from various people. Instead, let’s try some hypotheses on for size: let’s generate some buoyant plasma formations, or some obstructed aerodynamic vortices. Let’s see if the vast majority of reports of ball lightning can be explained by one or more of these phenomena. If so, we have discovered what ball lightning is, and linguistic stipulations are beside the point.
Of course, there’s no guarantee such an approach can work. But there’s no guarantee that stipulative definitions will get us anywhere, either. Stipulation tempts definers to pretend to greater access to their conceptual structures than they actually possess. If they resist that temptation, they will probably resist stipulation too, for lack of use.