Download or read book Essays on Reference Language and Mind written by Keith Donnellan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-13 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Keith Donnellan is one of the major figures in 20th century philosophy of language and mind, a key member of the highly influential group that altered the course of philosophy of language and mind around 1970. An innovative philosopher, Donnellan's primary contributions were published in article form rather than books. This volume presents a highly focused collection of articles by Donnellan, beginning with his 1966 groundbreaking "Reference and Definite Descriptions," historically the first move in the direct reference direction. In the late sixties and early 1970's, the philosophy of language and mind went through a paradigm shift, with the then-dominant Fregean theory being questioned by what has come to be known as "the direct reference turn." Donnellan played a key role in this shift, focusing on the relation of reference--a touchstone in the philosophy of language--and the relation of "thinking about"--a key idea in the philosophy of mind. The debates about the metaphysical and epistemological foundations of direct reference ended up forming the agendas of the philosophies of language and mind. Donnellan's ideas are the heart of such ongoing debates. This volume, which collects his key contributions dating from the late 1960's through the early 1980's alongside an introduction by one of the editors, Joseph Almog, disseminates the work to a new audience and for posterity. This collection will be of interest to philosophers of language and mind, and of contemporary metaphysics and epistemology, as well as of linguistics and cognitive psychology.
Download or read book Essays on Reference Language and Mind written by Keith Donnellan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-26 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a highly focused collection of articles by Donnellan. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the philosophy of language and mind went through a paradigm shift, with the then-dominant Fregean theory losing ground to the 'direct reference' theory sometimes referred to as the direct reference revolution. Donnellan played a key role in this shift, focusing on the relation of semantic reference, a touchstone in the philosophy of language and the relation of 'thinking about' - a touchstone in the philosophy of mind.
Download or read book New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind written by Noam Chomsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-04-13 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outstanding and unique contribution to the philosophical study of language and mind by Noam Chomsky.
Download or read book Language and Mind written by Noam Chomsky and published by New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. This book was released on 1972 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of Chomsky's lectures, the first three essays describe linguistic contributions to the study of the mind and the last three discuss the relationship among linguistics, philosophy, and psychology.
Download or read book Language Consciousness Culture written by Ray S. Jackendoff and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-01-23 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An integrative approach to human cognition that encompasses the domains of language, consciousness, action, social cognition, and theory of mind that will foster cross-disciplinary conversation among linguists, philosophers, psycholinguists, neuroscientists, cognitive anthropologists, and evolutionary psychologists. Ray Jackendoff's Language, Consciousness, Culture represents a breakthrough in developing an integrated theory of human cognition. It will be of interest to a broad spectrum of cognitive scientists, including linguists, philosophers, psycholinguists, neuroscientists, cognitive anthropologists, and evolutionary psychologists. Jackendoff argues that linguistics has become isolated from the other cognitive sciences at least partly because of the syntax-based architecture assumed by mainstream generative grammar. He proposes an alternative parallel architecture for the language faculty that permits a greater internal integration of the components of language and connects far more naturally to such larger issues in cognitive neuroscience as language processing, the connection of language to vision, and the evolution of language. Extending this approach beyond the language capacity, Jackendoff proposes sharper criteria for a satisfactory theory of consciousness, examines the structure of complex everyday actions, and investigates the concepts involved in an individual's grasp of society and culture. Each of these domains is used to reflect back on the question of what is unique about human language and what follows from more general properties of the mind. Language, Consciousness, Culture extends Jackendoff's pioneering theory of conceptual semantics to two of the most important domains of human thought: social cognition and theory of mind. Jackendoff's formal framework allows him to draw new connections among a large variety of literatures and to uncover new distinctions and generalizations not previously recognized. The breadth of the approach will foster cross-disciplinary conversation; the vision is to develop a richer understanding of human nature.
Download or read book Direct Reference written by Francois Recanati and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 1997-08-15 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume puts forward a distinct new theory of direct reference, blending insights from both the Fregean and the Russellian traditions, and fitting the general theory of language understanding used by those working on the pragmatics of natural language
Download or read book Sensations Thoughts Language written by Arthur Sullivan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brian Loar (1939-2014) was an eminent and highly respected philosopher of mind and language. He was at the forefront of several different field-defining debates between the 1970s and the 2000s—from his earliest work on reducing semantics to psychology, through debates about reference, functionalism, externalism, and the nature of intentionality, to his most enduringly influential work on the explanatory gap between consciousness and neurons. Loar is widely credited with having developed the most comprehensive functionalist account of certain aspects of the mind, and his ‘phenomenal content strategy’ is arguably one of the most significant developments on the ancient mind/body problem. This volume of essays honours the entirety of Loar’s wide-ranging philosophical career. It features sixteen original essays from influential figures in the fields of philosophy of language and philosophy of mind, including those who worked with and were taught by Loar. The essays are divided into three thematic sections covering Loar’s work in philosophy of language, especially the relations between semantics and psychology (1970s-80s), on content in the philosophy of mind (1980s-90s), and on the metaphysics of intentionality and consciousness (1990s and beyond). Taken together, this book is a fitting tribute to one of the leading minds of the latter-20th century, and a timely reflection on Loar’s enduring influence on the philosophy of mind and language.
Download or read book New Essays on Singular Thought written by Robin Jeshion and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-27 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading philosophers present essays on an issue central to philosophy of mind, language, and perception: the nature of our thought about the external world. The essays explore directions for future research, an important resource for anyone working at the interface of semantics and mental representation.
Download or read book Language and Mind written by Noam Chomsky and published by New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. This book was released on 1972 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of Chomsky's lectures, the first three essays describe linguistic contributions to the study of the mind and the last three discuss the relationship among linguistics, philosophy, and psychology.
Download or read book John Searle s Philosophy of Language written by Savas L. Tsohatzidis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-18 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a volume of original essays on key aspects of John Searle's philosophy of language. It examines Searle's work in relation to current issues of central significance, including internalism versus externalism about mental and linguistic content, truth-conditional versus non-truth-conditional conceptions of content, the relative priorities of thought and language in the explanation of intentionality, the status of the distinction between force and sense in the theory of meaning, the issue of meaning scepticism in relation to rule-following, and the proper characterization of 'what is said' in relation to the semantics/pragmatics distinction. Written by a distinguished team of contemporary philosophers, and prefaced by an illuminating essay by Searle, the volume aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of Searle's work in philosophy of language, and to suggest innovative approaches to fundamental questions in that area.
Download or read book Consciousness written by Peter Carruthers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-05-26 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Carruthers's essays on consciousness and related issues have had a substantial impact on the field, and many of his best are now collected here in revised form. The first half of the volume is devoted to developing, elaborating, and defending against competitors one particular sort of reductive explanation of phenomenal consciousness, which Carruthers now refers to as 'dual-content theory'. Phenomenal consciousness - the feel of experience - is supposed to constitute the 'hardproblem' for a scientific world view, and many have claimed that it is an irredeemable mystery. But Carruthers here claims to have explained it. He argues that phenomenally conscious states are ones that possess both an 'analog' (fine-grained) intentional content and a corresponding higher-orderanalog content, representing the first-order content of the experience. It is the higher-order analog content that enables our phenomenally conscious experiences to present themselves to us, and that constitutes their distinctive subjective aspect, or feel.The next two chapters explore some of the differences between conscious experience and conscious thought, and argue for the plausibility of some kind of eliminativism about conscious thinking (while retaining realism about phenomenal consciousness). Then the final four chapters focus on the minds of non-human animals. Carruthers argues that even if the experiences of animals aren't phenomenally conscious (as his account probably implies), this needn't prevent the frustrations and sufferings ofanimals from being appropriate objects of sympathy and concern. Nor need it mean that there is any sort of radical 'Cartesian divide' between our minds and theirs of deep significance for comparative psychology. In the final chapter, he argues provocatively that even insects have minds that include abelief/desire/perception psychology much like our own. So mindedness and phenomenal consciousness couldn't be further apart.Carruthers's writing throughout is distinctively clear and direct. The collection will be of great interest to anyone working in philosophy of mind or cognitive science.
Download or read book Meaning Mind and Matter written by Ernie Lepore and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-03-03 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ernie Lepore and Barry Loewer present a series of papers on three key ideas of contemporary philosophy: that a theory of meaning for a language is best understood as a theory of truth for that language; that thought and language are best understood together via a theory of interpretation; and that the mental is irreducible to the physical.
Download or read book Essays on Mind written by Donald O. Hebb and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald Olding Hebb, referred to by American Psychologist as one of "the 20th century's most eminent and influential theorists in the realm of brain function and behavior," contributes greatly to the understanding of mind and thought in Essays on Mind. His objective was to learn about thought which he considered "the central problem of psychology -- but also, not less important, to learn how to think clearly about thought, which is philosophy." The volume is written for advanced undergraduates, graduates, professionals, and lay people interested in or studying the mind. Hebb offers an increased understanding of the mind from a biological perspective that affects long-standing philosophical and psychological problems. "Psychology and Philosophy were divorced some time ago but, like other divorced couples, they still have problems in common," writes Hebb. The first three chapters establish the methodological and philosophical basis for his biologically centered theory of behavior, including the evolution of the mind, nature versus nurture, the origination and status of cell-assembly theory, and infant thought and language development. He concludes with a discussion of the workings of scientific thought from a practical rather than theoretical perspective.
Download or read book Mind Code and Context written by T. Givon and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-01-21 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars concerned with the phenomenon of mind have searched through history for a principled yet non-reductionist approach to the study of knowledge, communication, and behavior. Pragmatics has been a recurrent theme in Western epistemology, tracing itself back from pre-Socratic dialectics and Aristotle's bio- functionalism, all the way to Wittgenstein's content-dependent semantics. This book's treatment of pragmatics as an analytic method focuses on the central role of context in determining the perception, organization, and communication of experience. As a bioadaptive strategy, pragmatics straddles the middle ground between absolute categories and the non-discrete gradation of experience, reflecting closely the organism's own evolutionary compromises. In parallel, pragmatic reasoning can be shown to play a pivotal role in the process of empirical science, through the selection of relevant facts, the abduction of likely hypotheses, and the construction of non-trivial explanations. In this volume, Professor Givon offers pragmatics as both an analytic method and a strategic intellectual framework. He points out its relevance to our understanding of traditional problems in philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, cognitive psychology, neuro-biology, and evolution. Finally, the application of pragmatics to the study of the mind and behavior constitutes an implicit challenge to the current tenets of artificial intelligence.
Download or read book Leibniz Language Signs and Thought written by Marcelo Dascal and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why was Leibniz so deeply interested in signs and language? What role does this interest play in his philosophical system? In the essays here collected, Marcello Dascal attempts to tackle these questions from different angles. They bring to light aspects of Leibniz’s work on these and related issues which have been so far neglected. As a rule they take as their starting point Leibniz's early writings (some unpublished, some only available in Latin) on characters and cognition, on definition, on truth, on memory, on grammar, on the specific problems of religious discourse, and so on. An effort has been made to relate the views expressed in these writings both to Leibniz’ more mature views, and to the conceptions prevailing in his time, as well as in preceding and following periods. The common thread running through all the essays is to what extent language and signs, in their most varied forms, are related to cognitive processes, according to Leibniz and his contemporaries.
Download or read book Languages of the Mind written by Ray S. Jackendoff and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1995-09-25 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two decades, Ray Jackendoff has persistently tackled difficult issues in the theory of mind and related theories of cognitive processing. Chief among his contributions is a formal theory that elaborates the nature of language and its relationship to a broad set of other domains. Languages of the Mind provides convenient access to Jackendoff's work over the past five years on the nature of mental representations in a variety of cognitive domains, in the context of a detailed theory of the level of conceptual structure developed in his earlier books Semantics and Cognition and Consciousness and the Computational Mind. The first two chapters summarize the theory of levels of mental representation ("languages of the mind") and their relationships to each other and show how conceptual structure can be approached along lines familiar from syntactic and phonological theory. From this background, subsequent chapters develop issues in word learning (and its pertinence to the Piaget-Chomsky debate) and the relation of conceptual structure to the understanding of physical space. Further chapters apply the theory to domains outside of traditional cognitive science. They include an approach to social and cultural cognition modeled on first principles of linguistic theory, the beginnings of a formal description of psychodynamic phenomena, and a discussion of musical parsing and its relation to musical affect that bears on current disputes in linguistic parsing. The final chapter takes up a long-standing conflict between philosophical and psychological approaches to the study of mind, arguing that mental representations should be regarded purely in terms of the combinatorial organization of brain states, and that the philosophical insistence on the intentionality of mental states should be abandoned.
Download or read book Fate Time and Language written by David Foster Wallace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents David Foster Wallace critiques philosopher Richard Taylor's work implying that humans have no control over the future and includes essays linking Wallace's critique with his later works of fiction.
