The Natural Background of Meaning / Edition 1

by A. Denkel

Overview

In The Natural Background to Meaning 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792353317
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	10/31/1998
Series:	Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science , #197
Edition description:	1998
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

Argues that meaning in language is an outcome of the evolutionary development of forms of animal communication, and explains the process by naturalizing the Locke-Grice approach. Finds that the roots of meaning are contained in observable regularities, which are manifestations of objective connections such as essences and causal relations. Explores such implications as a view of time that harmonizes B-theory with transience, and the passage of time as a necessary condition for communication and meaning. For practicing and advanced student philosophers grappling with questions of meaning, universals, causation, and time. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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