Naturalizing Content

Meaning is mysterious. Right now you are looking at funny marks on a screen. Somehow, these marks are conveying to you information about a class that will be offered at Stanford during the winter quarter 2020. But how is this happening? These marks surely have no natural connection to the future class. They aren't like the footprints of a tiger, for example. Additionally, thousands of times a day, you manage to gain information about all manner of subjects by hearing strange sounds that have no natural connection to the subject matter. The sounds aren't like the bark of a dog, for example. You also manage to think about things that aren't in front of you, as when you think of a Hippo wearing a fedora. Yet activity in your brain has no natural connection to Hippos in fedoras (we presume). This class will investigate how it is that sounds, marks, and mental states manage to have semantic content. In other words, we will discuss attempts to solve the mystery of meaning, in all of its forms.The class is open to all graduate students in philosophy. Undergraduates who have not taken Phil 80 and at least one upper level philosophy class must receive permission to enroll.