Should the teleosemanticist be afraid of semantic indeterminacy?

Mind and Language 1 (1):296-314 (2021)
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Abstract

The teleosemantic indeterminacy problem has generated much discussion but no consensus. One possible solution is to accept indeterminacy as a real feature of some representations. I call this view “indeterminacy realism.” In this paper, I argue that indeterminacy realism should be treated as a serious option. By drawing an analogy with vagueness, I try to show that accepting the reality of indeterminacy would not be catastrophic for teleosemantics. I further argue that there are positive reasons to endorse indeterminacy realism. I end the paper by arguing that indeterminacy realism need not generalize viciously to the case of propositional attitudes.

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Karl G. Bergman
Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Citations of this work

Teleological theories of mental content.Peter Schulte & Karen Neander - 2022 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Teleosemantics and the frogs.Ruth Garrett Millikan - 2024 - Mind and Language 39 (1):52-60.
Type-R Physicalism.Will Moorfoot - forthcoming - Philosophical Psychology.

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