Language and the structure of Berkeley's world

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Cover; Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; The Problem: Structure; The Solution: Language; Aims and Methodology; Summary of the Chapters; 1: Berkeley's Attack on Meanings; The Theory of Meanings; The Dialectical Structure of Berkeley's Attack; The Case against Abstraction; The phenomenological appeal; The impossibility of abstract ideas; The uselessness of abstract ideas; Conclusion; 2: Berkeley's EarlyThoughts on Language; GeneralWords; Operative Language; Mathematical and Scientific Language. Arithmetic and algebraGeometry; Conclusion; 3: Berkeley'sTheory of Language in Alciphron 7; Overview of the Dialogue; A General Theory of Language; Meaning as Use; Ideational and Operative Language; Conclusion; 4: Rules and Rule-Following; Implicit and Explicit Rule-Following; Rules and Knowledge; The Conventional Rules of Language; Inference Rules; 5: Reference and Quasi-Reference; Labeling; Generalizing; Labeling and Existence; Quasi-Referring; The Metaphysics of Quasi-Entities; 6: Quasi-Referring to Bodies; Against Materialist Semantics; Bodies as Linguistic Constructions. Alternative InterpretationsSubjunctive interpretations; Idea interpretations; The Richness of Berkeleian Bodies; Knowledge of Bodies; Predication; Existence, Reality, Identity; 7: Referring to Spirits and Their Actions; Referring to Actions; Referring to Spirits; Existence, Reality, Identity; Conclusion; 8: Assent and Truth; The Nature of Assent; Scientific knowledge: Berkeley's anti-skepticism; Religious faith: Berkeley's replies to Toland and Browne; Partial assent; The Nature of Truth; Truth and usefulness; Degrees of truth; Holism; Fit with reality; Conclusion. 9: The Linguistic Structure of Berkeley's WorldA Literal Language of Nature; Visual language; Other sense modalities; Lexicography: Co-Instantiation; Syntax: Causation and Laws; Excursus on Common Sense and Natural Science; Semantics; Informing and instructing about ideas; Informing about other finite minds; Informing about God; The interpretation of the discourse of nature; Conclusion: From Fleeting Ideas to Robust Structure; Bibliography; Index