Reflections on Meaning

Aims to explain how mere noises, marks, gestures, and mental symbols are able to capture the world - that is, how words and sentences come to mean what they do, to stand for certain things, to be true or false of reality. The chapters of this book make an argument focused on articulating and developing a fresh conception of language.

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Paul Horwich, one of the world's most distinguished philosophers, develops in this book his highly original deflationary conception of language. His main aim in Reflections on Meaning is to explain how mere noises, marks, gestures, and mental symbols are able to capture the world - that is, how words and sentences (in whatever medium) come to mean what they do, to stand for certain things, to be true or false of reality. His answer is an innovative development of Wittgenstein's idea that the meaning of a term is nothing more than its use.