Remnants of MeaningIn this foundational work on the theory of linguistic and mental representation, Stephen Schiffer surveys all the leading theories of meaning and content in the philosophy of language and finds them lacking. He concludes that there can be no correct, positive philosophical theory or linguistic or mental representation and, accordingly advocates the deflationary "no-theory theory of meaning and content." Along the way he takes up functionalism, the nature of propositions and their suitability as contents, the language of thought and other sententialist theories of belief, intention based semantics, and related issues in ontology. Stephen Schiffer is Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate Center. A Bradford Book. |
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argument arthritis B-box belief properties beliefs and desires believes that flounders car was coming causal causal law ceteris paribus chapter Clark Kent compositional semantics compositional truth-theoretic semantics conceptual role content-determining features correct compositional semantics Davidson defined deny determined doghood E₁ English explain expressions flounders snore folk psychology functional property functional role Gustav Harvey Harvey's hypothesis IBS theorist intentional irreducible knowledge language of thought language-independent languages have compositional M-function mental representation Mentalese mode of presentation natural languages neural nonpleonastic objects one's Ontological Physicalism philosophical physicalist pleonastic predicate propositional attitudes propositional-attitude propositionalist protohumans psychological public-language quantified question realize reason reduction reference relational theory Saul Kripke semantic features semantic values sentence Sentential Dualism sententialist singular term snow is white speaker speaker-meaning state-token state-types such-and-such supervenience suppose Tanya's belief TC function theory of meaning theory of propositional things truth condition truth theory understand utterances