Reasoning, Meaning, and Mind

by Gilbert Harman

Overview

In this important new collection, Gilbert Harman presents a selection of fifteen interconnected essays on fundamental issues at the center of analytic philosophy. The book opens with a group of four essays discussing basic principles of reasoning and rationality. The next three essays argue against the once popular idea that certain claims are true and knowable by virtue of meaning. In the third group of essays Harman presents his own view of meaning and the possibility of thinking in language The final three essays investigate the nature of mind, developing further the themes already set out.

Reasoning, Meaning, and Mind offers an integrated presentation of this rich and influential body of work. which Harman has developed over thirty years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198238034
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/16/1999
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gilbert Harman is Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University.

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I. Reasoning1. Rationality2. Practical Reasoning3. Simplicity as a Pragmatic Criterion for Deciding What Hypotheses to Take Seriously4. Pragmatism and Reasons for BeliefPart II. Analyticity5. The Death of Meaning6. Doubts about Conceptual Analysis7. Analyticity Regained?Part III. Meaning8. Three Levels of Meaning9. Language, Thought, and Communication10. Language Learning11. Meaning and Semantics12. (Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role SemanticsPart IV. Mind13. Wide Functionalism14. The Intrinsic Quality of Experience15. Immanent versus Transcendent Theories of Meaning and MindBibliographyIndex