Gauker Christopher. Words Without Meaning

The MIT Press, 2003. — xi, 299 pages. — (Contemporary Philosophical Monographs). — ISBN 0-262-07242-4; ISBN 0-262-57162-5."Gauker provides a concise and compelling critique of the received view of linguistic communication and the propositional account of belief that underpins it. He then develops a novel alternative, one that eschews appeal to meaning in favor of talk of objective contexts and assertibility conditions. Gauker's contextualist altnernative to the received view is supported by its ability to provide promising solutions to a number of traditional problems in the philosophy of language. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the nature of linguistic communication. " — Marga Reimer, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona.The Issue
The Received View
Mental Representation
Elements of an Alternative
Pragmatics
Domain of Discourse
Presupposition
mplicatureSemantics
Quantification
Conditionals
Truth
Beliefs
The Communicative Conception
Explanation and Prediction
Semantics and Ontology
Afterwordndex