Abstract

Words signify things. Or so O’Callaghan wants to argue, against the “mental representationalist” tradition of modern philosophy which holds that words signify concepts in the mind, which in turn problematically correspond to or represent things. O’Callaghan gives extended consideration to the possibility that the “linguistic turn” of twentieth-century Anglo-American philosophy suggests a way out of mental representationalism. He concludes, however, that a more compelling response may be had by drawing upon Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist tradition, to which he attributes a “willingness and sense of obligation to engage contemporary modes of thought”.