Meaning and our mental life

Hilary Putnam

pp. 17-32

in: Edna Ullmann-Margalit (ed), The kaleidoscope of science I, Berlin, Springer, 1986

Abstract

The thrust of this lecture will be negative: I shall argue that a certain way of thinking about meaning and about the nature of the mind is fundamentally misguided. It is always less exciting to hear someone criticize attempted solutions to a problem than to hear someone announce that he has found the solution. But I think we can learn something about the nature of meaning and, perhaps, something — even if it is somewhat nihilistic — about the nature of psychology by seeing why certain ideas about meaning and its place in the mind don't work.