course material

1. Ruth milikan chapters 5 and 6 in her book varieties of meaning and
Ruth milikan chapters 5 and 6 in her book varieties of meaning and critique it. The
teleologist needs a base theory of the representing relation on which to build his
description of intentional representation. Fred Dretske (1986, 1988, 1995) placed his
theory of natural signs and the natural information they carry at the base of his teleological
theory (see chapter 3 above). Some items, Dretske claimed, have the “function” of carrying
natural information, and when they do this they come to represent intentionally.They
become intentional representations, representations that can be false (Dretske 1986, 1991).
Dretske’s “functions” are what I have been calling “purposes,” at least close enough for my
purposes.1 If we take it that a plain representation, one that is not intentional in Brentano’s
sense, is just a bearer of natural information, then Dretske’s theory of intentional
representation is a neat example of a completed teleosemantic theory of the sort described
in chapter 5.#Ruth #milikan #chapters #book #varieties #meaning