Mental Content and Linguistic Form

The "linguistic picture" that consists of models & metaphors that model thought on language is considered & rejected. Some concessions to this approach are made, & the relations between language & thought are explored. Questions about the nature of representational states & the realization of such states are discussed with relation to an abstract semantic problem about belief attribution. It is concluded that belief states are information-carrying states, which may or may not involve specific linguistic elements. In Mental Content in Linguistic Form, William G. Lycan (U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) examines Stalnaker's view of the idea of "inner speech." It is argued that Stalnaker's points about the semantics of hyperintensional belief ascriptions have not been made clear. B. Annesser Murray