Rethinking Language, Mind, and Meaning

Description

In this book, Scott Soames argues that the revolution in the study of language and mind that has taken place since the late nineteenth century must be rethought. The central insight in the reigning tradition is that propositions are representational. To know the meaning of a sentence or the content of a belief requires knowing which things it repre

Scott Soames is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and director of the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He is the author of many books, including The Analytic Tradition in Philosophy, Volume 1; Analytic Philosophy in America; Philosophy of Language; Philosophical Essays; and Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century (all Princeton).

"By incorporating elements of philosophy of mind into language and metaphysics, this book represents an important turn in thinking about propositions. The book is certain to have a significant impact in discussions of logic, language, and mind in 21st-century analytic philosophy." * Choice * "This book provides an up-to-date and coherent version of Soames' theory of propositions. . . . However, this work is far from being just the result of collecting together the author's previous achievement in this field. On the contrary, it contains an original proposal while also representing years of research in a systematic and persuasive essay."---Edoardo Rivello, MathSciNet