Language and reality

the long version

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 introduction to the philosophy of language. Making no pretense of neutrality, Michael Devitt and Kim Steretny 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.