Reflections on Meaning [Paperback]

Paul Horwich, one of the world's most distinguished philosophers, develops in this book his highly original deflationary conception of language. His main aim inReflections on Meaningis to explain how mere noises, marks, gestures, and mental symbols are able to capture the world - that is, how words and sentences (in whatever medium) come to mean what they do, to stand for certain things, to be true or false of reality. His answer is an innovative development of Wittgenstein's idea that the meaning of a term is nothing more than its use.

Preface
1. The Space of Issues and Options
2. A Use Theory of Meaning
3. The Pseudo-Problem of Error
4. The Sharpness of Vague Terms
5. Norms of Truth and Meaning
6. Meaning Constitution and Epistemic Rationality
7. Meaning and its Place in the Faculty of Language
8. Deflating Compositionality