Naturalizing Representation

Notions of meaning and representation are ubiquitous in how we conceive of our mental lives. Intentionality is one of the marks of the mental -- but it's not clear how these semantic notions can fit into our understanding of the natural world. In this class we'll discuss attempts to naturalize semantic notions, for example by appeal to informational or functional concepts. We'll read works by Dretske, Millikan, Skyrms, and others in evaluating this project.Prerequisite: PHIL 80 or consent of instructor.