Thinking about Things

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Mind & Body, Reference & Language, Language Arts
Cover of the book Thinking about Things by Mark Sainsbury, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mark Sainsbury ISBN: 9780192524980
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: May 3, 2018
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: Mark Sainsbury
ISBN: 9780192524980
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: May 3, 2018
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

In the blink of an eye, I can redirect my thought from London to Austin, from apples to unicorns, from former president Obama to the mythical flying horse, Pegasus. How is this possible? How can we think about things that do not exist, like unicorns and Pegasus? They are not there to be thought about, yet we think about them just as easily as we think about things that do exist. Thinking About Things addresses these and related questions, taking as its framework a representational theory of mind. It explains how mental states are attributed, what their aboutness consists in, whether or not they are relational, and whether any of them involve nonexistent things. The explanation centers on a new theory of what is involved in attributing attitudes like thinking, hoping, and wanting. These attributions are intensional: some of them seem to involve nonexistent things, and they typically have semantic and logical peculiarities, like the fact that one cannot always substitute one expression for another that refers to the same thing without affecting truth. Mark Sainsburys new theory, display theory, explains these anomalies. For example, substituting coreferring expressions does not always preserve truth because the correctness of an attribution depends on what concepts it displays, not on what the concepts refer to. And a concept that refers to nothing may be used in an accurate display of what someone is thinking.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In the blink of an eye, I can redirect my thought from London to Austin, from apples to unicorns, from former president Obama to the mythical flying horse, Pegasus. How is this possible? How can we think about things that do not exist, like unicorns and Pegasus? They are not there to be thought about, yet we think about them just as easily as we think about things that do exist. Thinking About Things addresses these and related questions, taking as its framework a representational theory of mind. It explains how mental states are attributed, what their aboutness consists in, whether or not they are relational, and whether any of them involve nonexistent things. The explanation centers on a new theory of what is involved in attributing attitudes like thinking, hoping, and wanting. These attributions are intensional: some of them seem to involve nonexistent things, and they typically have semantic and logical peculiarities, like the fact that one cannot always substitute one expression for another that refers to the same thing without affecting truth. Mark Sainsburys new theory, display theory, explains these anomalies. For example, substituting coreferring expressions does not always preserve truth because the correctness of an attribution depends on what concepts it displays, not on what the concepts refer to. And a concept that refers to nothing may be used in an accurate display of what someone is thinking.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book The Nostalgic Imagination by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book Blackstone's Employment Law Practice 2012 by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book The Political Economy of Clean Energy Transitions by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book From Melancholia to Prozac by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book Proving in the Elementary Mathematics Classroom by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book Holistic Innovation Policy by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book The City of London and Social Democracy by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book The Law of Higher Education by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book The Languages of East and Southeast Asia by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book No Turning Back by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book A Dictionary of Proverbs by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book Sovereignty and the Law by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume II by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism by Mark Sainsbury
Cover of the book Unsuitable for Ladies by Mark Sainsbury
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy