Meaning Without Representation: Expression, Truth, Normativity, and Naturalism

Synopsis

Much Contemporary Thinking About Language Is Animated By The Idea That The Core Function Of Language Is To Represent How The World Is And That Therefore The Notion Of Representation Should Play A Fundamental Explanatory Role In Any Explanation Of Language And Language Use. Leading Thinkers In The Field Explore Various Ways This Idea May Be Challenged As Well As Obstacles To Developing Various Forms Of Anti-representationalism. Particular Attention Is Given To Deflationary Accounts Of Truth, The Role Of Language In Expressing Mental States, And The Normative And The Natural As They Relate To Issues Of Representation. The Chapters Further Various Fundamental Debates In Metaphysics-for Example, Concerning The Question Of Finding A Place For Moral Properties In A Naturalistic World-view-and Illuminate The Relation Of The Recent Neo-pragmatist Revival To The Expressivist Stream In Analytic Philosophy Of Language. Challenges The Idea That Representation Of How The World Is Should Play A Fundamental Explanatory Role In Any Explanation Of Language. Examines Deflationary Accounts Of Truth, The Role Of Language In Expressing Mental States, And The Normative And The Natural As They Relate To Issues Of Representation. Introduction. Anti-representational Semantics : Four Themes / Nicholas Tebben -- Truth And Reference. Deflationism, Pragmatism, And Metaphysics / Rebecca Kukla And Eric Winsberg ; Does The Expressive Role Of 'true' Preclude Deflationary Davidsonian Semantics? / Steven Gross ; An Inferential Account Of Referential Success / Alexis Burgess ; Representation And The Modern Correspondence Theory Of Truth / Michale Glanzberg ; Deflationism, Truth, And Acuracy / Dean Pettit -- Expression And Expressivism. What Would An Expressivist Semantics Be? / Mark Richard ; Hard Cases For Combining Expressivism And Deflationist Truth : Conditionals And Epistemic Modals / Mark Schroeder ; Expression : Acts, Products, And Meaning / Dorit Bar-on ; Global Expressivism And The Truth In Representation / Allan Gibbard ; The Limits Of Expressivism / Anandi Hattiangadi -- Normativity. Pragmatism And The Price Of Truth / Michael Patrick Lynch ; Pragmatism And The Function Of Truth / Cheryl Misak ; Life Is Not A Box-score : Lived Normativity, Abstract Evaluation, And The Is/ought Distinction / Mark Lance -- Naturalism. Idling And Sidling Toward Philosophical Peace / Huw Price ; Is (determinate) Meaning A Naturalistic Phenomenon? / Paul Boghossian ; Kripke's Wittgenstein / Paul Horwich. Edited By Steven Gross, Nicholas Tebben, And Michael Williams. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.