Reasoning, Meaning, and MindGilbert Harman presents a selection of fifteen interconnected essays on fundamental issues at the centre of analytic philosophy. The book opens with a group of four essays discussing basic principles of reasoning and rationality. The next three essays argue against the idea that certain claims are true by virtue of meaning and knowable by virtue of meaning. In the third group of essays Harman sets out his own view of meaning, arguing that it depends upon the functioning of concepts in reasoning, perception, and action, by which these concepts are related to the world. He also examines the relation between language and thought. The final three essays investigate the nature of mind, developing further the themes already set out. Reasoning, Meaning, and Mind offers an integrated presentation of this rich and influential body of work. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 27
Page 1
... concerned with basic principles of reasoning and ration- ality . In Essay 1 , ' Rationality , I sharply distinguish logic from the theory of reasoning , reject special foundationalism in favour of general epistemo- logical conservatism ...
... concerned with basic principles of reasoning and ration- ality . In Essay 1 , ' Rationality , I sharply distinguish logic from the theory of reasoning , reject special foundationalism in favour of general epistemo- logical conservatism ...
Page 3
... concerned with meaning . Essay 8 , ' Three Levels of Meaning , distinguishes three conceptions of meaning — meaning as conceptual role , meaning as communicated thought , and meaning as speech - act potential . At one time , these were ...
... concerned with meaning . Essay 8 , ' Three Levels of Meaning , distinguishes three conceptions of meaning — meaning as conceptual role , meaning as communicated thought , and meaning as speech - act potential . At one time , these were ...
Page 4
... concerned with the nature of mind , although they carry on themes developed in the previous essays . Essay 13 , ' Wide Functionalism ' , argues that psychological explanation is a kind of functional explanation , like some biological ...
... concerned with the nature of mind , although they carry on themes developed in the previous essays . Essay 13 , ' Wide Functionalism ' , argues that psychological explanation is a kind of functional explanation , like some biological ...
Page 23
... concerned with real rather than ideal rational agents . That is enough background . We now turn to some less obvious and more controversial aspects of rationality . 1.3 CONSERVATISM The first less obvious aspect of rationality is that ...
... concerned with real rather than ideal rational agents . That is enough background . We now turn to some less obvious and more controversial aspects of rationality . 1.3 CONSERVATISM The first less obvious aspect of rationality is that ...
Page 27
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
Contents
1 | |
what Hypotheses to Take Seriously | 75 |
Pragmatism and Reasons for Belief | 93 |
The Death of Meaning | 119 |
Doubts about Conceptual Analysis | 138 |
Analyticity Regained? | 144 |
Three Levels of Meaning | 155 |
Language Thought and Communication | 166 |
Meaning and Semantics | 192 |
Nonsolipsistic Conceptual Role Semantics | 206 |
Wide Functionalism | 235 |
The Intrinsic Quality of Experience | 244 |
Immanent and Transcendent Approaches | 262 |
Bibliography | 277 |
Index of Names | 287 |
Language Learning | 183 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accept analytic-synthetic distinction argues argument assumption attitudes cause cancer coherence colour communication concept conceptual role semantics conclusion consider deductive degree of belief derive distinguish epistemic reason Essay example experience explanation explanatory expression Fodor foundationalism functional given hypothesis idiolect indeterminacy inductive inductive reasoning inference intentional object intrinsic desires intrinsic features inverted spectrum involves Katz language linguistic logical form mental Mentalese modus ponens nonepistemic reasons normal notion one's perception person philosophers possible postulation practical reasoning pragmatic principles priori knowledge proposition psychological psychological hedonism question Quine Quine's radical translation rational reason to believe relation relevant scheme of translation sense sentences Similarly simplicity sniper someone sort speaker speech acts statement suppose synonymy system of representation Temporal Dutch Book theoretical reasoning theory of meaning theory of truth things thought tion true truth conditions Twin Earth understand virtue of meaning W. V. Quine words
Popular passages
Page 12 - Linda is more likely to be a feminist bank teller than a bank teller, they may be using 'more likely' to mean something like 'more representative'.
Page 194 - Semantic markers are symbols: items in the vocabulary of an artificial language we may call Semantic Markerese. Semantic interpretation by means of them amounts merely to a translation algorithm from the object language to the auxiliary language Markerese. But we can know the Markerese translation of an English sentence without knowing the first thing about the meaning of the English sentence: namely, the conditions under which it would be true. Semantics with no treatment of truth conditions is...
Page 194 - Semantic interpretation by means of them amounts merely to a translation algorithm from the object language to the auxiliary language Markerese. But we can know the Markerese translation of an English sentence without knowing the first thing about the meaning of the English sentence: namely, the conditions under which it would be true. Semantics with no treatment of truth conditions is not semantics. Translation into Markerese is at best a substitute for real semantics, relying either on our tacit...
Page 238 - This assumption is the assumption that no psychological state, properly so called, presupposes the existence of any individual other than the subject to whom that state is ascribed.
Page 97 - I am as impressed as anyone with the vastness of what language contributes to science and to one's whole view of the world; and in particular I grant that one's hypothesis as to what there is, eg, as to there being universals, is at bottom just as arbitrary or pragmatic a matter as one's adoption of a new brand of set theory or even a new system of bookkeeping. Carnap in turn recognizes that such decisions, however conventional, "will nevertheless usually be influenced by theoretical knowledge.
Page 180 - Moreover, it appears incorrect to regard many so-called "selectional violations" as not corresponding to possible messages, since many of them can turn up in reports of dreams: (2) I dreamed that my toothbrush was pregnant. (3) I dreamed that I poured my mother into an inkwell. (4) I dreamed that I was a proton and fell in love with a shapely greenand-orange-striped electron. or in reports of the beliefs of other persons: 4 (5) John thinks that electrons are green with orange stripes.
Page 164 - Many contemporary linguists, however, see iccommunication and other social uses of language" as of secondary importance, and an "adequate theory" as needing to show only "how the meaning of a sentence is determined by its grammatical structure and the meaning of its lexical items".
Page 222 - ... Perhaps misunderstanding on this matter is partly responsible for the fact that both sides of the inverted spectrum argument tend to see nothing at all in the other side. To quote Harman on the inverted spectrum from an earlier paper, "I speak of an 'argument