Language, Thought and Consciousness: An Essay in Philosophical Psychology

Do we think in natural language? Or is language only for communication? Much recent work in philosophy and cognitive science assumes the latter. In contrast, Peter Carruthers argues that much of human conscious thinking is conducted in the medium of natural language sentences. However, this does not commit him to any sort of Whorfian linguistic relativism, and the view is developed within a framework that is broadly nativist and modularist. His study will be essential reading for all those interested in the nature and significance of natural language, whether they come from philosophy, psychology or linguistics.

• Author well-known in this area. Published THE ANIMALS ISSUE with CUP, and has THEORIES OF Theories of MIND in production • Book presents an adventurous new theory of consciousness • Broad interdisciplinary readership in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive psychology, cognitive science more generally

Preface; Introduction; 1. The geography of the issues; 2. Which language do we think with? 3. Thought-based semantics; 4. Holism and language; 5. First steps towards a theory of consciousness; 6. Second (-order) steps towards a theory of consciousness; 7. A reflexive thinking theory of consciousness; 8. The involvement of language in conscious thinking; Conclusion; References; Index.