Language and Reality

What is language? How does it relate to the world? How does it relate to
the mind? Should our view of language influence our view of the world? These are
among the central issues covered in this spirited and unusually clear introduction
to the philosophy of language.Making no pretense of neutrality, Michael Devitt and
Kim Sterelny take a definite theoretical stance. Central to that stance is
naturalism--that is, they treat a philosophical theory of language as an empirical
theory like any other and see people as nothing but complex parts of the physical
world. This leads them, controversially, to a deflationary view of the significance
of the study of language: they dismiss the idea that the philosophy of language
should be preeminent in philosophy.This highly successful textbook has been
extensively rewritten for the second edition to reflect recent developments in the
field.