Against Expressionism: Wittgenstein, Searle, and Semantic Content

Abstract

In this paper, I present Wittgenstein’s criticisms of a group of popular
theories, which I call “expressionism.” Expressionist theories of meaning claim
that means of representation (e.g. sounds) represent semantic content by virtue
of their relation to mental states. In this paper, I show that even theories,
such as John Searle’s, that do not rely on phenomenal mental rules are subject
to Wittgenstein’s criticisms.