Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language

Michael Devitt, Kim Sterelny

MIT Press, 1999 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 342 pages

What is language? How does it relate to the world? How does it relate to the mind? Should our view of language influence our view of the world? These are among the central issues covered in this spirited and unusually clear introduction to the philosophy of language. Making no pretense of neutrality, Michael Devitt and Kim Sterelny take a definite theoretical stance. Central to that stance is naturalism--that is, they treat a philosophical theory of language as an empirical theory like any other and see people as nothing but complex parts of the physical world. This leads them, controversially, to a deflationary view of the significance of the study of language: they dismiss the idea that the philosophy of language should be preeminent in philosophy. This highly successful textbook has been extensively rewritten for the second edition to reflect recent developments in the field.

Contents

• Introduction: 3
• Truth and Reference: 19
• Names: 45
• Names: 66
• Other Terms: 83
• Syntactic Structure: 114
• Thought and Meaning: 137
• Linguistic Competence: 166
• 9 Defending Representationalism: 200
• Linguistic Relativity: 217
• Verificationism: 233
• Structuralism: 259
• First Philosophy: 275
• 15 Rational Psychology: 289
• Glossary: 307
• Bibliography: 314
• Index: 332

Bibliographic information

• Title: Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language; A Bradford book
• Authors: Michael Devitt, Kim Sterelny
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: MIT Press, 1999
• ISBN: 0262540991, 9780262540995
• Length: 342 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Philosophy / Language