Meaning, expression, and thought
By: Wayne A. Davis.
Series: Cambridge studies in philosophy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Cambridge, UK; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 654
Subjects: Semantics (Philosophy); Language and languages -- Philosophy
Description: "This philosophical treatise on the foundations of semantics is a systematic effort to clarify, deepen, and defend the classical doctrine that words are conventional signs of mental states, principally thoughts and ideas, and that meaning consists in their expression. This expression theory of meaning is developed by carrying out the Gricean program, explaining what it is for words to have meaning in terms of speaker meaning, and what it is for a speaker to mean something in terms of intention. But Grice's own formulations are rejected, and alternatives are developed. The foundations of the expression theory are explored at length, and the author develops the theory of thought as a fundamental cognitive phenomenon distinct from belief and desire, and argues for the thesis that thoughts have parts, identifying ideas or concepts with parts of thoughts." "This book will appeal to students and professionals interested in the philosophy of language."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 608-644) and index.
Table of contents: title: Speaker meaning; title: Expression; title: Alternative analyses; title: Communication; title: Reference; title: Languages; title: Basic word meaning; title: Conventions; title: Compositional word meaning; title: Living languages; title: Thought; title: Sentences, propositions, and thoughts; title: The constituency thesis; title: Ideas or concepts; title: The possession of concepts; title: The acquisition of concepts; title: The association of ideas; title: Objects, images, and conceptions; title: The language of thought hypothesis; title: Objections to ideational theories; title: Priority objections; title: Incompleteness objections.