Words Without Meaning

According to the received view of linguistic communication, the primary function oflanguage is to enable speakers to reveal the propositional contents of their thoughts to hearers.Speakers are able to do this because they share with their hearers an understanding of the meaningsof words. Christopher Gauker rejects this conception of language, arguing that it rests on anuntenable conception of mental representation and yields a wrong account of the norms ofdiscourse.Gauker's alternative starts with the observation that conversations have goals and thatthe best way to achieve the goal of a conversation depends on the circumstances under which theconversation takes place. These goals and circumstances determine a context of utterance quite apartfrom the attitudes of the interlocutors. The fundamental norms of discourse are formulated in termsof the conditions under which sentences are assertible in such contexts.Words without Meaningcontains original solutions to a wide array of outstanding problems in the philosophy of language,including the logic of quantification, the logic of conditionals, the semantic paradoxes, the natureof presupposition and implicature, and the nature and attribution of beliefs.

Christopher Gauker is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati.