Expanding on some of Chomsky’s recently expressed views of meaning in a way that is consistent with his long-held rationalist conception of mind, I show how syntax, broadly conceived, could individuate meanings and provide a science of meanings inside the head. Interpretation becomes a pragmatic matter, although a rationalist account of mind shows how internal meanings guide interpretation and, more generally, language use. In this view of meanings, interpretation, and mind, semantics as usually understood disappears.

A comprehensive and accessible companion to the various aspects of Noam Chomsky's work.

Descartes was right: commonsense concepts are acquired, not learned; scientific concepts are learned, not acquired.