Philosophy of Language

Named arguments and positions that concern meaning, reference, interpretation and the limits of what language can express: the indeterminacy of translation as Quine's argument that no unique correct translation between languages can be recovered from behavioral evidence alone, and the private language argument as Wittgenstein's case against the possibility of a language only its speaker could understand. Belongs here: a formulated argument or named position whose target question is how words and sentences mean or refer. Does not belong here: an argument about the nature of the mind that uses language as its test case, grouped under Philosophy of Mind instead, such as an argument targeting consciousness or qualia rather than meaning itself.