Indrek Reiland: Language as Expression of Thought

Invitation pdf

Abstract:
In his famous paper "Language as Thought and as Communication" (1969), Sellars argued against Grice that language should primarily be viewed as a form of an expression of conceptual thought and not as a vehicle for communication. But his particular view presents a package of answers to two separate questions. First, whether we can understand language and linguistic meaning in non-communicative terms (e. g. just in terms of expression of thoughts, Sellars) or whether we must understand them in necessarily communicative terms (e. g. in terms of their role in communication, Davidson, Dummett, Grice)? Second, whether language is prior to conceptual thought and can explain it (Sellars, Dummett) or whether conceptual thought is prior to language and can explain it (Searle, Grice, Lewis)? Even though there are outliers, the most standard package answers are Sellars's own non-communicative + language-priority view and Grice's communicative + thought-priority view. In this talk, I will explore the prospects of a view on which language is expression of thought and thus not necessarily communicative, but on which thought is taken to be prior to language.