We read:
"John McDowell’s 1994 book Mind and World mounts a two-pronged attack on
the Enlightenment conceptions of language on which Pinker’s argument
relies. On one hand, McDowell argues that a commitment to naïve empiricism
(which he calls “bald naturalism”) will make it seem impossible that words
carry meaning. Strictly speaking, McDowell points out, the only account of
meaningful language available in this framework is causal. The only way of
saying why President Trump utters certain word-sounds is to say what causes
the muscle fibers of his lips to move etc., which isn’t the right kind of
explanation. Hence naïve empiricism, a view dependent on and articulated in
language, results in a picture of language as just sound-making or
hand-scribbling or air-gesturing, devoid of content."
As in
http://thephilosophicalsalon.com/its-perfectly-possible-to-live-in-a-post-truth-era/
Cheers!
