Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

Neo-pragmatist accounts of intentionality have been left aside as serious candidates to account for the origins of content. In this presentation I argue that this dismissal is not essentially connected to naturalistic tenets, as it may be thought. Rather it is based on an essential tension that lies at the heart of some of the best known social accounts of content, both in the advocators and detractors views. I will unfold this essential tension and show what is at stake in it. I will then sketch the steps towards a dissolution of this tension and end by reassessing the prospects of such approaches.