
Ignorance of Language
Michael Devitt(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 10. April 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-19-925097-4 (ISBN)
Description
The Chomskian revolution in linguistics gave rise to a new orthodoxy about mind and language. Michael Devitt throws down a provocative challenge to that orthodoxy. What is linguistics about? What role should linguistic intuitions play in constructing grammars? What is innate about language? Is there a 'language faculty'? These questions are crucial to our developing understanding of ourselves; Michael Devitt offers refreshingly original answers. He argues that linguistics is about linguistic reality and is not part of psychology; that linguistic rules are not represented in the mind; that speakers are largely ignorant of their language; that speakers' intuitions do not reflect information supplied by the language faculty and are not the main evidence for grammars; that the rules of 'Universal Grammar' are largely, if not entirely, innate structure rules of thought; indeed, that there is little or nothing to the language faculty. Devitt's controversial theses will prove highly stimulating to anyone working on language and the mind
Reviews / Votes
Review from previous edition A wealth of careful distinctions and detailed arguments...an example of how serious philosophy of a very technical area may be conducted with thoroughness, lucidity, and elegance. * John Collins, Mind Journal *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
488 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-925097-4 (9780199250974)
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Michael Devitt
Ignorance of Language
Book
04/2006
Oxford University Press
€150.30
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Michael Devitt is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He taught at the University of Sydney from 1971 until 1987 and the University of Maryland from 1988 to 1999. His main research interests are in the philosophy of language and mind, and in issues of realism. He is the author of Designation (Columbia, 1981), Realism and Truth (2nd edn with Afterword, Princeton, 1997), Coming to Our Senses: A Naturalistic Program for Semantic Localism (Cambridge, 1996), and Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language (with Kim Sterelny, 2nd edn, MIT, 1999).
Content
I. LINGUISTICS IS NOT PSYCHOLOGY; II. POSITIONS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL REALITY; III. 'PHILOSOPHICAL' ARGUMENTS FOR THE REPRESENTATIONAL THESIS; IV. THE RELATION OF LANGUAGE TO THOUGHT; V. LANGUAGE USE AND ACQUISITION