This Handbook offers students and more advanced readers a valuable resource for understanding linguistic reference; the relation between an expression (word, phrase, sentence) and what that expression is about. The volume's forty-one original chapters, written by many of today's leading philosophers of language, are organized into ten parts:

I Early Descriptive Theories
II Causal Theories of Reference
III Causal Theories and Cognitive Significance
IV Alternate Theories
V Two-Dimensional Semantics
VI Natural Kind Terms and Rigidity
VII The Empty Case
VIII Singular (De Re) Thoughts
IX Indexicals
X Epistemology of Reference

Contributions consider what kinds of expressions actually refer (names, general terms, indexicals, empty terms, sentences), what referring expressions refer to, what makes an expression refer to whatever it does, connections between meaning and reference, and how we know facts about reference. Many contributions also develop connections between linguistic reference and issues in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science.

About the Author

Stephen Biggs is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University. He researches and teaches in philosophy of mind and language, epistemology, and cognitive science.

Heimir Geirsson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Iowa State University. He works primarily in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaethics, and is the author of Philosophy of Language and Webs of Information (2013).

Book Information
ISBN 9780367630249
Author Stephen Biggs
Format Paperback
Page Count 586
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 1200g