Abstract

We begin by mentioning various important philosophical problems whose solutions call for an account of meaning: problems concerning the nature of truth, thought, justification, and philosophy. The chapter continues with a list of notorious puzzles about meaning that were highlighted by Frege, Brentano, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Dummett, Grice, Kaplan, Putnam, and Kripke. Then there is a summary of the main elements of the theory to be presented in the following chapters, which is designed to resolve these puzzles.