Abstract

DE MELO ARAUJO, Arthur Octávio. Meaning without representation: Jakob von Uexküll's pragmatic theory of meaning. Ciênc. cogn. [online]. 2012, vol.17, n.2, pp. 98-114. ISSN 1806-5821.

This work aims to show that Jakob von Uexküll's theory of meaning is implicitly a pragmatic theory. As pragmatic theory of meaning it seems to coincide with some aspects of the critics of the analytical philosophy to notion of mental representation during the 20^th century, for example, among authors like Austin, Ryle and Wittgenstein since from the pragmatism of Charles S. Peirce and William James. Similarly, Uexküll's theory of meaning coincides with some aspects of Francisco Varela's critic to the notion of representation in cognitive sciences and his idea of 'working without representation'. And finally I seek to indicate an eventual non-representational alternative to the cognitive sciences, as well as an alternative of dealing with the problem of the explanatory gap. © Cien. Cogn. 2012; Vol. 17 (2): 098-114.

Keywords : meaning; representation; pragmatism; cognitive sciences.

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