On Distinguishing the Meaningless from the Meaningful: An Evolutionary Game Theoretic Approach to Ruth Millikan\'s Teleosemantics
dc.contributor.author | Slipetz, Lindley | en |
dc.contributor.committeechair | Patton, Lydia K. | en |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Jantzen, Benjamin C. | en |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Pitt, Joseph C. | en |
dc.contributor.department | Philosophy | en |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-05-04T08:00:32Z | en |
dc.date.available | 2013-05-04T08:00:32Z | en |
dc.date.issued | 2013-05-03 | en |
dc.description.abstract | What distinguishes a meaningless utterance from a meaningful term? While one might say that, within the context of Ruth Millikan\'s teleosemantics, it is a term\'s having a proper function that distinguishes it from a meaningless utterance, I propose that the distinction can be made with reference to the history of the term. Using evolutionary game theory, I offer a way to clarify the distinction between the meaningless and the meaningful. I reject the possibility of correlating meaning with an evolutionarily stable strategy as this does not seem to be consistent with how communication works or with Millikan\'s theory. Instead, when a term has meaning, the function category of that term corresponds to an evolutionarily stable state composed of both speaker and hearer strategies. | en |
dc.description.degree | Master of Arts | en |
dc.format.medium | ETD | en |
dc.identifier.other | vt_gsexam:580 | en |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/20377 | en |
dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
dc.rights | In Copyright | en |
dc.rights.uri | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | en |
dc.subject | Ruth Millikan | en |
dc.subject | game theory | en |
dc.subject | meaning | en |
dc.subject | teleosemantics | en |
dc.title | On Distinguishing the Meaningless from the Meaningful: An Evolutionary Game Theoretic Approach to Ruth Millikan\'s Teleosemantics | en |
dc.type | Thesis | en |
thesis.degree.discipline | Philosophy | en |
thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
thesis.degree.level | masters | en |
thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts | en |
Files
Original bundle
1 - 1 of 1