What is meaning? / Scott Soames.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Soames, Scott.

Series:

Soochow University lectures in philosophy.

Soochow University lectures in philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Meaning (Philosophy).

Proposition (Logic).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (145 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The tradition descending from Frege and Russell has typically treated theories of meaning either as theories of meanings (propositions expressed), or as theories of truth conditions. However, propositions of the classical sort don't exist, and truth conditions can't provide all the information required by a theory of meaning. In this book, one of the world's leading philosophers of language offers a way out of this dilemma. Traditionally conceived, propositions are denizens of a "third realm" beyond mind and matter, "grasped" by mysterious Platonic intuition. As conceived here, they are cognitive-event types in which agents predicate properties and relations of things--in using language, in perception, and in nonlinguistic thought. Because of this, one's acquaintance with, and knowledge of, propositions is acquaintance with, and knowledge of, events of one's cognitive life. This view also solves the problem of "the unity of the proposition" by explaining how propositions can be genuinely representational, and therefore bearers of truth. The problem, in the traditional conception, is that sentences, utterances, and mental states are representational because of the relations they bear to inherently representational Platonic complexes of universals and particulars. Since we have no way of understanding how such structures can be representational, independent of interpretations placed on them by agents, the problem is unsolvable when so conceived. However, when propositions are taken to be cognitive-event types, the order of explanation is reversed and a natural solution emerges. Propositions are representational because they are constitutively related to inherently representational cognitive acts. Strikingly original, What Is Meaning? is a major advance.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Meanings

Chapter 2. Frege and Russell: The Real Problem of "the Unity of the Proposition"

Chapter 3. Why Truth Conditions Are Not Enough

Chapter 4. Propositions and Attitudes: Davidson's Challenge and Russell's Neglected Insight

Chapter 5. Toward a Theory of Propositions: A Deflationary Account

Chapter 6. The Cognitive-Realist Theory of Propositions

Chapter 7. Expanding the Cognitive-Realist Model

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612936081

9781282936089

1282936085

9781400833948

1400833949

OCLC:

664334473