Meaning, Understanding, and Practice: Philosophical Essays

by Barry Stroud

Overview

Meaning, Understanding, and Practice is a selection of the most notable essays of a leading contemporary philosopher on a set of central topics in analytic philosophy. Barry Stroud offers penetrating studies of meaning, understanding, necessity, and the intentionality of thought. A question which runs through much of this work is what can be expected from a philosophical account of one's understanding of the meaning of something. Five of the essays are focused specifically on the philosophy of Wittgenstein, and most of the rest work with ideas derived from Wittgenstein. Stroud's introduction puts the papers in context by explaining how his ideas and aims developed over the years, and drawing out the recurring themes of the book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191520204
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	05/18/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	438 KB

About the Author

Barry Stroud is Mills Professor of Metaphysics and Epistemology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	vii
1.	Wittgenstein and Logical Necessity (1965)	1
2.	Conventionalism and the Indeterminacy of Translation (1968)	17
3.	Inference, Belief, and Understanding (1979)	33
4.	Evolution and the Necessities of Thought (1981)	52
5.	Wittgenstein's 'Treatment' of the Quest for 'a language which describes my inner experiences and which only I myself can understand' (1983)	67
6.	Wittgenstein on Meaning, Understanding, and Community (1990)	80
7.	Quine's Physicalism (1990)	95
8.	Meaning, Understanding, and Translation (1990)	113
9.	The Background of Thought (1991)	131
10.	Quine on Exile and Acquiescence (1995)	151
11.	Mind, Meaning, and Practice (1996)	170
12.	The Theory of Meaning and the Practice of Communication (1998)	193
13.	Private Objects, Physical Objects, and Ostension (2000)	213
	Index	233