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On Distinguishing the Meaningless from the Meaningful: An Evolutionary Game Theoretic Approach to Ruth Millikan\'s Teleosemantics

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dc.contributor.authorSlipetz, Lindleyen
dc.contributor.committeechairPatton, Lydia K.en
dc.contributor.committeememberJantzen, Benjamin C.en
dc.contributor.committeememberPitt, Joseph C.en
dc.contributor.departmentPhilosophyen
dc.date.accessioned2013-05-04T08:00:32Zen
dc.date.available2013-05-04T08:00:32Zen
dc.date.issued2013-05-03en
dc.description.abstractWhat 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.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:580en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/20377en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectRuth Millikanen
dc.subjectgame theoryen
dc.subjectmeaningen
dc.subjectteleosemanticsen
dc.titleOn Distinguishing the Meaningless from the Meaningful: An Evolutionary Game Theoretic Approach to Ruth Millikan\'s Teleosemanticsen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplinePhilosophyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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