This book is a defense of a Chomskyan conception of language against philosophical objectionsthat have been raised against it. It also provides, however, a critical examination of some of the glosses on the theory: the assimilation of it to traditional Rationalism; a supposed conflict between being innate and learned; an unclear ontology and the need of a "representational pretense" with regard to it; and, most crucially, a rejection of Chomsky's eliminativism about the role of intentionality not only in his own theories, but in any serious science at all. This last is a fundamentally important issue for linguistics, psychology, and philosophy that an examination of a theory as rich and promising as a Chomskyan linguistics should help illuminate. The book ends with a discussion of some further issues that Chomsky misleadingly associates with his theory: an anti-realism about ordinary thought and talk, and a dismissal of the mind/body problem(s), towards the solution of some of which his theory in fact makes an important contribution.
| ISBN: | 9780198855637 |
| Publication date: | 15th October 2020 |
| Author: | Georges (Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland) Rey |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 480 pages |
| Genres: |
Philosophy of language Philosophy of mind Psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics |