Abstract

Twentieth century philosophers have often thought of concepts as words in a discursive form of mental representation. The objective of this chapter is to distinguish between what is right and what is wong in such views, as a preparation for the version of that view that will be defended in this book. The chapter criticizes the functionalist theory of meaning of Wilfrid Sellars, but finds usable ideas in Sellars's ‘myth of Jones’ and his theory of perception. The chapter also criticizes Jerry Fodor's theory of an innate language of thought and Robert Brandom's scorekeeping conception of discourse.