Thoughts on deflationist understandings of the mind

Criticisms from the work of Amie L. Thomasson

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34024/prometeica.2025.32.18697

Keywords:

deflationism, ontology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language

Abstract

Semantic deflationism is a theory that has gained much strength in the last 20 years, which has led to the use of the deflationist approach in different areas of philosophy, and philosophy of mind is no exception. Now, deflationism is not a vague concept that allows referring everything and at the same time nothing, but rather, according to Amie L. Thomasson, semantic deflationism, existence deflationism and meta-ontological deflationism go hand in hand and change the way ontological debates are conducted, so that if we adopt one type of deflationism, we must commit ourselves to the others. It is for this reason that this paper will first develop the argument of the American author and then analyze whether deflationist understandings of the mind in contemporary philosophy contemplate the above-mentioned consequences.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

  • Vincent Vergara, Universidad Católica del Maule

    Psicólogo y Licenciado en Psicología por la Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca. Chile.

    Candidato a Doctor en Filosofía, Religión y Pensamiento Contemporáneo por la Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca. Chile.

    Tesis doctoral en desarrollo, que establece puentes entre Filosofía de la Mente, Filosofía del lenguaje y Metafísica, desde la perspectiva del deflacionismo.

References

Ayer, A. J. (1935). The Criterion of Truth. Analysis, 3(1/2), Article 1/2. https://doi.org/10.2307/3326615

Ayer, A. J. (1936). Language, Truth, and Logic. Philosophy, 23(85), Article 85.

Churchland, P. M. (1981). Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes. The Journal of Philosophy, 78(2), 67. https://doi.org/10.2307/2025900

Churchland, P. S. (2002). Brain-wise: Studies in neurophilosophy. MIT Press.

DeWitt, J. A. (2021). Dogramaci’s deflationism about rationality. Synthese, 199(1-2), 4437-4455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02985-6

Dogramaci, S. (2012). Reverse Engineering Epistemic Evaluations. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 84(3), 513-530. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2011.00566.x

Dogramaci, S. (2015). Communist Conventions for Deductive Reasoning. Noûs, 49(4), 776-799. https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.12025

Egan, F. (2014). How to think about mental content. Philosophical Studies, 170(1), 115-135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-013-0172-0

Egan, F. (2020). A Deflationary Account of Mental Representation. En F. Egan, What are Mental Representations? (pp. 26-53). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190686673.003.0002

Horwich, P. (1998a). Meaning. Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press.

Horwich, P. (1998b). Truth (2nd ed). Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press.

Horwich, P. (2005). From a deflationary point of view (Repr). Clarendon Press.

Horwich, P. (2010). Truth-meaning-reality. Oxford University Press.

Hutto, D. D., & Myin, E. (2020). Deflating Deflationism about Mental Representation. En D. D. Hutto & E. Myin, What are Mental Representations? (pp. 79-100). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190686673.003.0004

Kripke, S. (1975). Outline of a Theory of Truth. The Journal of Philosophy, 72(19), Article 19. https://doi.org/10.2307/2024634

McGrath, M. (1997). Weak deflationism. Mind, 106(421), 69-98.

Merricks, T. (2006). Objects and persons (Reprinted). Clarendon Press.

Place, U. T. (1956). Is consciousness a brain process. British Journal of Psychology, 47(1), 44-50.

Ramsey, F. P. (1927). VI.—Symposium: “Facts and Propositions.” Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 7(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1093/aristoteliansupp/7.1.153

Rodríguez González, M. (2021). Filosofía de la mente (1. ed). Ediciones Complutense.

Rorty, R. (1965). Mind-Body Identity, Privacy, and Categories. The Review of Metaphysics, 19(1), 24-54. JSTOR.

Russell, B. (1910). On the nature of truth and falsehood. En B. Russell (Ed.), Philosophical Essays. Routledge.

Ryle, G. (1938). Categories. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, 3, 189-206.

Ryle, G. (1968). The concept of mind (Reprinted with a new introduction). Penguin Books.

Schaffer, J. (2007). From nihilism to monism. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 85(2), 175-191. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048400701343150

Schaffer, J. (2009). Spacetime the one substance. Philosophical Studies, 145(1), 131-148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-009-9386-6

Soames, S. (1997). The Truth about Deflationism. Philosophical Issues, 8, 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/1522992

Soames, S. (2003). Understanding Deflationism. Philosophical Perspectives, 17(1), 369-383. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1520-8583.2003.00015.x

Strawson, P. F. (1949). Truth. Analysis, 9(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/9.6.83

Tarski, A. (1944). The Semantic Conception of Truth: And the Foundations of Semantics. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 4(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.2307/2102968

Tarski, A. (1969). Truth and Proof. Scientific American, 220(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0669-63

Thomasson, A. L. (2007). Ordinary objects. Oxford University Press.

Thomasson, A. L. (2009a). Answerable and Unanswerable Questions. En D. J. Chalmers, D. Manley, & R. Wasserman, Metametaphysics: New essays on the foundations of ontology. Clarendon press.

Thomasson, A. L. (2009b). The Easy Approach to Ontology. Axiomathes, 19(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-008-9057-9

Thomasson, A. L. (2013). Fictionalism versus Deflationism. Mind, 122(488), 1023-1051. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzt055

Thomasson, A. L. (2014). Deflationism in Semantics and Metaphysics. En Metasemantics: New Essays on the Foundations of Meaning (Vol. 1). Oxford university press.

Thomasson, A. L. (2015). Ontology made easy. Oxford University press.

Thomasson, A. L. (2016). Why we Should Still take it Easy. Mind, fzv212. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzv212

Tortoreto, A. (2022). Rorty deflazionista. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, XIV(1). https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.2874

Van Inwagen, P. (1995). Material beings (1. print. paperbacks). Cornell Univ. Pr.

Yablo, S. (2001). Go figure: A path through fictionalism. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 25(1), 72-102.

Yablo, S. (2009). Must Existence Questions have Answers? En D. J. Chalmers, D. Manley, & R. Wasserman, Metametaphysics: New essays on the foundations of ontology (pp. 508-525). Clarendon press.

Published

2025-06-01

How to Cite

Vergara, V. (2025). Thoughts on deflationist understandings of the mind: Criticisms from the work of Amie L. Thomasson. Prometeica - Journal of Philosophy and Science, 32, e18697 (1-15). https://doi.org/10.34024/prometeica.2025.32.18697
Received 2024-05-27
Accepted 2025-05-01
Published 2025-06-01