Thought and Language

The relationship between thought and language has been of central importance to philosophy ever since Plato characterised thinking as ‘a dialogue the soul has with itself’. In this volume, several major twentieth-century philosophers of mind and language make further contributions to the debate. Among the questions addressed are: is language conceptually prior to thought, or vice versa? Must thought take place ‘in’ a medium? To what extent can creatures without language be credited with thoughts? Do we have to suppose that thinking involves the use of concepts? What does it mean to have and deploy a concept? How do recent psychological experiments bear on these issues? Are beliefs, desires, hopes and fears rightly construed as ‘attitudes towards propositions’? Should twentieth-century philosophy be conceived of in terms of Michael Dummett’s distinction between ‘analytical philosophy’ and the ‘philosophy of thought’?

• An entirely fresh and up-to-date and look at an area of central importance to both philosophy and linguistics • Boasts some of the world’s most celebrated analytical philosophers

Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction: One tradition in the philosophical study of thought and language John Preston; 2. Seeing through language Donald Davidson; 3. ‘The only sure sign...’: thought and language in Descartes John Cottingham; 4. Words and pictures John Hyman; 5. Social externalism and conceptual diversity Andrew Woodfield; 6. The explanation of cognition John R. Searle; 7. Thought without language: thought without awareness L. Weiskrantz; 8. Philosophy, thought and language Hans-Johann Glock; 9. The flowering of thought in language W. V. Quine; 10. Talking to cats, rats and bats K. V. Wilkes; 11. Analyticity, linguistic rules and epistemic evaluation Christopher Hookway; 12. How to do other things with words Daniel C. Dennett; Bibliography; Index.