Ignorance of Language

• A major new argument against the grain of current thinking about language and the mind
• Argues that most philosophers and cognitive scientists working on language have got it all wrong
• Devitt's assertions will stimulate, provoke, even outrage

Readership: Scholars and students of philosophy of language and philosophy of mind; linguists; cognitive scientists

Michael Devitt, City University of New York

"A wealth of careful distinctions and detailed arguments...an example of how serious philosophy of a very technical area may be conducted with thoroughness, lucidity, and elegance." - John Collins, Mind Journal

I. Linguistics is not Psychology
1: Introduction
2: A grammar as a theory of linguistic reality
II. Positions on Psychological Reality
3: Some possible positions on psychological reality
4: Some actual postions on psychological reality
III. 'Philosophical' Arguments for the Representational Thesis
5: The Rejection of Behaviourism
6: Folk Psychology
7: Intuitions
IV. The Relation of Language to Thought
8: Thought before language
9: A case for the psychological reality of language
10: Thought and the language faculty
V. Language Use and Acquisition
11: Language use
12: Language acquisition