The Natural Background of Meaning

1998. Auflage 1998
ISBN: 978-0-7923-5331-7
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, Band 197, 252 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 1220 g

Reihe: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

In Denkel argues that meaning in language is an outcome of the evolutionary development of forms of animal communication, and explains this process by naturalising the Locke-Grice approach. The roots of meaning are contained in observable regularities, which are manifestations of objective connections such as essences and causal relations. Denkel's particularistic ontology of properties and causation leads to a view of time that harmonises B-theory with transience. Time's passage, he argues, is a necessary condition of communication and meaning.
The book connects some central topics in the philosophies of language, science and ontology, treating them within the framework of a single theory. It will interest not only professional philosophers doing research on meaning, universals, causation and time, but also students, who can consult it as a textbook examining Grice's theory of meaning.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Denkel, A.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sprachphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Metaphysik, Ontologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften Sprachphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

One / Introduction: Regularities and the Objective Background of Communication.- Two / The Problem of Meaning and its Lockean Solution.- Three / Thinking and Language.- Four / Natural Meaning and Evolution.- Five / Some Reflections upon the Speaker’s Meaning.- Six / Nonnatural Meaning Naturalized.- Seven / The Ontology of Objective Connections.- Eight / Causation.- Nine / The Flow of Time.- References.- Index of Subjects.- Index of Names.