
Speaking My Mind
Expression and Self-Knowledge
Dorit Bar-On(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 18. November 2004
Book
Hardback
464 pages
978-0-19-926320-2 (ISBN)
Description
Dorit Bar-On develops and defends an original view of avowals and self-knowledge which offers systematic answers to many persistent questions concerning our ability to know our own minds. According to Bar-On's Neo-Expressivist view, avowals - those everyday spontaneous pronouncements that we make about our own present states of mind - are acts through which we directly express, rather than merely report, the very mental conditions the avowals ascribe. Verbal acts of speaking our minds are thus similar to natural expressions, such as sighing, or smiling; they show, rather than simply telling of our present states of mind. Drawing on resources from the philosophy of language and of mind, the theory of action, and epistemology, Bar-On argues, as against many expressivists and their critics, that an expressivist explanation is consistent with a non-deflationary view of self-knowledge and a robust realism about mental states.
Reviews / Votes
It is ambitious, it is long, and it is difficult, but it is well worth the effort. This is a rich book; rich in topics, in argumentation, and in philosophical imagination and insight. It deserves the attention of all who work in mind and language. * Joseph Owens, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Scholars and students of philosophy, particularly in epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind, also those in related areas of linguistics and cognitive science.
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
857 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-926320-2 (9780199263202)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
11/2004
Oxford University Press
€67.40
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Dorit Bar-On, Department of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Content
I. Introduction: The Special Security of Some 'I' Talk ; II. Using 'I' as 'Subject': Cartesian Reference or No Reference? ; III. 'I'-Ascriptions: The Semantic and the Epistemic ; IV. The Epistemic Approach to Avowals' Security: Introspection and Transparency ; V. Content Externalism, Skepticism, and the Recognitional Conception of Self-Knowledge ; VI. The Distinctive Security of Avowals: Ascriptive Immunity to Error Beyond Security in Content Assignment ; VII. Avowals: 'Grammar' and Expression ; VIII. Avowals: Expression, Content, and Truth ; IX. Speaking My Mind: Expression, Truth, and Self-Knowledge ; X. Speaking My Mind: Grammar, Epistemology, and (Some) Ontology ; Bibliography ; Index