Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language

Michael Devitt is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Designation (1981), Coming to Our Senses: A Naturalistic Program for Semantic Localism (1995), Realism and Truth (1997), and Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language (with Kim Sterelny, 1999).Richard Hanley is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware. He is the author of The Metaphysics of Star Trek (1997, reprinted in paperback as Is Data Human?), as well as articles in metaphysics and philosophy of language.

• Preface. Notes on Contributors.Introduction: Michael Devitt and Richard Hanley.Part I: Foundational Issues.Foundations issues in the philosophy of language: Martin Davies (Australian National University).Part II: Meaning.The nature of meaning: Paul Horwich (City University of New York Graduate Center).Truth and reference as the basis for meaning: James Higginbotham (University of Southern California).Language, thought, and meaning: Brian Loar (Rutgers University).Meaning skepticism: Alex Miller (Macquarie University).Analyticity again: Jerry Fodor and Ernie Lepore (Rutgers University).Formal semantics: Max Cresswell (University of Aukland & Texas A&M University) Speech acts and pragmatics: Kent Bach (San Francisco State University).Figurative language: Josef Stern (University of Chicago & Bar-Ilan University, Israel).Propositional attitude ascription: Mark Richard (Tufts University).Conditionals: Frank Jackson (Australian National University).Vagueness: Stephen Schiffer (New York University).The semantics of non-factualism, non-cognitivism, quasi-realism: Simon Blackburn (University of Cambridge).Part III: Reference.Names: William Lycan (University of North Carolina).General terms and mass terms: Stephen Schwartz (Ithaca College).Descriptions: Peter Ludlow and Stephen Neale (University of Michigan & Rutgers University).Using indexicals: John Perry (Stanford University).Pronouns and anaphora: Stephen Neale (Rutgers University).Naturalistic theories of reference: Karen Neander (University of California, Davis) Truth: Vann McGee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).Bibliography.Index..

“A superb collection of essays by a virtual who’s who of the philosophy of language today…the articles clearly and helpfully sum up the state of play without erasing their authors’ distinctive perspectives.” Paul Boghossian, New York University“Devitt and Hanley have assembled a superb list of contributors. They are all leading authorities on their topics, and together they offer an absolutely up-to-date analysis of current issues in the philosophy of language. This is the first book I would choose for a course on this subject.” David Papineau, King’s College London