The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language - (Blackwell Philosophy Guides) by Michael Devitt & Richard Hanley (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Language is a collection of twenty new essays in a cutting-edge and wide-ranging field.

• Surveys central issues in contemporary philosophy of language while examining foundational topics
  
• Provides pedagogical tools such as abstracts and suggestions for further readings
  
• Topics addressed include the nature of meaning, speech acts and pragmatics, figurative language, and naturalistic theories of reference

From the Back Cover

The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language is a collection of 20 new essays by internationally renowned scholars. Each contribution offers an authoritative survey of a central topic in philosophy of language, often accompanied by useful suggestions for further reading; the volume also has a large and insightful bibliography at the end. Included are chapters on analyticity, anaphora, conditionals, descriptions, formal semantics, indexicals and demonstratives, kind terms, metaphor, names, propositional attitude ascriptions, speech acts, truth, and vagueness. An introduction by the editors sets the stage for extended treatments of theories of meaning and reference, and an investigation of foundational issues.

Suitable for upper-level undergraduate and graduate survey courses, The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language is an invaluable resource for students and professional philosophers alike.

Review Quotes

"A superb collection of essays by a virtual who's who of the philosophy of language today...the articles clearly and helpfully sum up the state of play without erasing their authors' distinctive perspectives." Paul Boghossian, New York University

"Devitt and Hanley have assembled a superb list of contributors. They are all leading authorities on their topics, and together they offer an absolutely up-to-date analysis of current issues in the philosophy of language. This is the first book I would choose for a course on this subject." David Papineau, King's College London

About the Author

Michael Devitt is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Designation (1981), Coming to Our Senses: A Naturalistic Program for Semantic Localism (1995), Realism and Truth (1997), and Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language (with Kim Sterelny, 1999).

Richard Hanley is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware. He is the author of The Metaphysics of Star Trek (1997, reprinted in paperback as Is Data Human?), as well as articles in metaphysics and philosophy of language.