Abstract

DANON, Laura. Animal Thoughts and its Linguistic Expression. Anal. filos. [online]. 2016, vol.36, n.2, pp.261-289. ISSN 1851-9636.

When we try to find a precise linguistic expression to the contents of animal thoughts we face persisting difficulties. In this paper, I will evaluate two alternative explanations of this phenomenon: the explanation from unfamiliar contents and the explanation from nonlinguistic format. Beck (2013) rejects the former and endorses the latter. I will begin by presenting objections against Beck's reasons to reject the explanation from unfamiliar contents. Afterwards, I will argue, against Beck, that even if some difficulties to put into words the contents of animal thoughts may be due to their nonlinguistic format, others have a different source. Thus, I will suggest that if we want to reach a more encompassing understanding of these difficulties, we need to develop a dual explanation which incorporates both differences in formats and differences in contents.

Keywords : Animal minds; Mental Contents; Language-Thought relationship.

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