The Metaphysics of Representation

Representation is puzzling. Physical events in our heads and sounds in our mouths come to be 'about' the world around us, equipping us to think and talk about anything fromÂthe most fundamental regularities in the universe to trivial matters of gossip. InThe Metaphysics of Representation, Robert Williams tells a story about how representational properties arise out of a fundamentally non-representational world. The representational properties of language are reduced, via convention, to the representational properties of thoughts. The representational properties of thoughts are reduced, via principles of rationalization, to the representational properties of perception and intention. This most fundamental layer of representation is grounded in the functions these structures have to cause and be caused by events in the world. Williams integrates work from rival traditions to present a combined perspective in the metaphysics of representation, gives new predictions and explanations of representational phenomena, and offers new solutions to long-standing problems.