Varieties of meaning : the 2002 Jean Nicod lectures /

Millikan (Univ. of Connecticut) sets out to develop further her own naturalistic account of meaning and content known as "teleosemantics." For Millikan, biological purpose determines the meaning of words and the content of mental states. It is therefore the most significant notion in any attempt to account for the content of propositional attitudes such as beliefs and desires, and the meaning of linguistic expressions of various kinds. Here "meaning" is construed broadly, since it includes both what is sometimes called "expression meaning" and "speaker meaning." Although Millikan draws on the Grecian account of meaning, she parts company with that tradition by taking speaker meaning to rest on biological purpose. The book opens with a theory of linguistic and nonlinguistic signs. Part 2 applies teleosemantics to linguistic meaning, advancing the provocative thesis that language provides direct knowledge of the world. Parts 3 and 4 offer an account of mental content within the framework of teleosemantics. Not only linguists and cognitive psychologists but also philosophers interested in mind and language (two central topics in contemporary analytic philosophy) will find Millikan's new book very appealing. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students and above. S. Nuccetelli St. Cloud State University