The Natural Background of Meaning

In The Natural Background to Meaning Denkel argues that meaning in language is an outcome of the evolutionary development of forms of animal communication, and explains this process by naturalising the Locke-Grice approach. The roots of meaning are contained in observable regularities, which are manifestations of objective connections such as essences and causal relations. Denkel's particularistic ontology of properties and causation leads to a view of time that harmonises B-theory with transience. Time's passage, he argues, is a necessary condition of communication and meaning. The book connects some central topics in the philosophies of language, science and ontology, treating them within the framework of a single theory. It will interest not only professional philosophers doing research on meaning, universals, causation and time, but also students, who can consult it as a textbook examining Grice's theory of meaning.

Contenu

Preface. 1. Introduction: Regularities and the Objective Background of Communication. 2. The Problem of Meaning and its Lockean Solution. 3. Thinking and Language. 4. Natural Meaning and Evolution. 5. Some Reflections upon the Speaker's Meaning. 6. Nonnatural Meaning Naturalized. 7. The Ontology of Objective Connections. 8. Causation. 9. The Flow of Time. References. Index of Subjects. Index of Names.