Beyond Black Dots and Nutritious Things: A Solution to the Indeterminacy Problem

Abstract

The indeterminacy problem is one of the most prominent objections against naturalistic theories of content. In this essay, I present this difficulty and argue that extant accounts are unable to solve it. Then, I develop a particular version of teleosemantics, which I call “explanation-based teleosemantics,” and show how this outstanding problem can be addressed within the framework of a powerful naturalistic theory.

Publication
Mind and Language, 36(3): 471-490