Abstract
One new wave in the philosophy of mind involves connecting recent work in philosophy of mind to our ‘metaphilosophical’ understanding of methodologies for doing philosophy. This paper charts relations between (a) views in philosophy of mind and language regarding the correct application conditions, or ‘meanings’, of our words and concepts and (b) methodologies that people have proposed for doing philosophy, especially methodologies that have aimed to uncover the meanings of philosophical concepts like knowledge, freedom and justice. I identify three broad classes of theories of concept meaning. Two of these, descriptivist and causal/informational classes of theories, correspond closely to familiar philosophical methodologies — intuitive conceptual analysis and ‘naturalized’ analysis. A third, the teleo/pragmatic class, has many adherents in philosophy of mind but does not yet have a well-known corresponding philosophical methodology. To fill this gap, I describe a general methodology that I call Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis. I offer some examples of this methodology and argue that this methodology enjoys distinct advantages over more familiar philosophical methodologies.
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