Mental Functioning and the Ontology of Language

1. Mental Functioning and the Ontology of Language Barry Smith Graz, July 21, 2012 http://x.co/mGgu

2. http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/book/austrian_philosophy/

3. Brentano and his students Brentano Meinong Husserl Twardowski Ehrenfels

5. Meinong Alley, Graz

6. Investigations in Ontology and Psychologywith support from the Imperial-Royal Minister of Culture and Education in Vienna, 1904

7. from 1874 to 1914 Brentano controls Austrian philosophy Brentano Vienna Ehrenfels Prague Meinong Graz Husserl Proßnitz Twardowski Lemberg

8. Brentano revolutionizes psychology Brentano published Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, 1874 Wundt first laboratory of experimental psychology, 1879 Meinong Ehrenfels founder of Gestalt psychology, 1890 Husserl Twardowski

10. Brentanists revolutionize ontology Brentano Meinong On the Theory of Objects, 1904 Husserl first formal mereology, 1902 ______ first use of ‘formal ontology’ ~1905; Twardowski Ehrenfels Leśniewski logical formalization of mereology, 1916

11. Brentanists revolutionize our understanding of the relations between psychology and ontology Brentano introduces in 1874 the idea of intentional directedness (aboutness) Meinong Husserl Twardowski Ehrenfels how can we think about what does not exist?

12. Brentanists revolutionize our understanding of the relations between psychology and ontology Brentano introduces in 1874 the idea of intentional directedness (aboutness) Meinong Husserl Twardowski Ehrenfels Stefan Schulz famous contributor to zoology of unicorns

13. the arrow of intentionality

14. Brentanists introduce the problem of understanding the relation between intentionality and language Brentano Meinong Ehrenfels Twardowski Husserl categorial grammar, 1901 Leśniewski founder of formal mereology Tarskiinvents formal semantics

15. “From Intentionality to Formal Semantics” Brentano Husserl Twardowski Leśniewski formal mereology Joseph WoodgerAxiomatic Method in Biology Patrick Hayes “Ontology of Liquids” … Description Logics, OWL … Tarski formal semantics

16. The Logicians: Leśniewski, Tarski, Łukasiewicz, TwardowskiMain Library of the University of Warsaw

17. Brentanists revolutionize our understanding of the relations between psychology and language Brentano Meinong Ehrenfels Husserl two kinds of aboutness:  relational Twardowski

18. MFO Draft

19. MFO Draft

20. simple object-presenting acts vs. judgments, evaluations, …

21. Successful intentionality • target present = you are in physical contact with target • successful intentionality • with evidence, without evidence

22. Veridical intentionality ordinary perception

23. Veridical intentionality veridical thinking about

24. Non-veridical intentionality non-veridical thinking about (error, hallucination, imagination, …)

25. Non-veridical intentionality error, hallucination = the presenting act is dependent on an underlying false belief

26. Non-veridical intentionality thinking about Macbeth = the presenting act is not dependent on an underlying false belief

27. An excluded case this combination is impossible

28. Veridical intentionality ordinary perception evolutionarily most basic case

29. content matches “food”

30. content mismatches “poison”

31. the primacy of language (Frege, Tarski …): mental experiences are about objects because words have semantics meaning

32. the primacy of the intentional (Brentano, Husserl, …): linguistic expressions have meanings because there are mental experiences which have aboutness

33. content mismatches “poison”

34. dimension of content / belief prior to dimension of language