About the project
Human beings, like many other animals, think and act intelligently to achieve their aims. But unlike most, perhaps all, other animals, we are also able to think about thoughts themselves, or ‘metarepresent’, and engage in deliberate, critical reasoning. Both abilities are manifestations of our nature as reflective beings, and arguably central to human nature.
Philosophers have long sought to understand each of these two human abilities, but hitherto largely in isolation, as a result leaving many important questions unanswered.
This project was a systematic, integrated study of the interconnections between reasoning and metarepresentation, exploring how they are jointly exercised in central domains of mentality, including self-awareness, autonomous action, and communication.
Financing
The Reflective Mind was funded by The Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO).
CSMN
The project was hosted by the completed Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN).
Publications
2017
Allott, N. (2017). Metarepresentation. In A. Barron, G. Yueguo & G. Steen (Eds.), Handbook of Pragmatics. London: Routledge.
Allott, N. & Shaer, B. (2017). The illocutionary force of laws. Inquiry.
Shaer, B. & Allott, N. (2017). Legal speech and the elements of adjudication. In B. Slocum (Ed.), Inference, Intention, and “Ordinary Meaning”: What Jurists Can Learn About Legal Interpretation From Linguistics and Philosophy. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
2016
Allott, N. (2016). Misunderstandings in verbal communication. In A. Rocci & L. de Saussure (Eds.), Verbal Communication. (pp. 485-507). Berlin: Walter De Gruyter.
Smith, N. V. & Allott, N. (2016). Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [This is an updated and much expanded new edition of Smith, N. V. (2004). Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.]
Nes, Anders (2016) "The Sense of Natural Meaning in Conscious Inference." In Thiemo Breyer and Christopher Gutland (eds.) The Phenomenology of Thinking. London: Routledge. 97-115.
Nes, Anders (2016) "Assertion, Belief, and 'I believe'-Guarded Affirmation." Linguistics and Philosophy, 39 (1):57-86.
2015
Nes, Anders (2015) “Review of Timothy Bayne and Michelle Montague, Cognitive Phenomenology.” Mind,124 (494):607-612
2014
Allott, N. (2014). Sperber, Dan (biographical entry). In C. A. Chapelle, K. Aijmer, M. Gonzales-Lloret, L. Ortega, L. Plakans & B. Wolter (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics: online version. Wiley-Blackwell.
Allott, N. (2014). Wilson, Deirdre and Relevance Theory (2014). In C. A. Chapelle, K. Aijmer, M. Gonzales-Lloret, L. Ortega, L. Plakans & B. Wolter (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics: online version. Wiley-Blackwell.
2013
Allott, N. (2013). Kommunikasjon [Communication]. Commissioned entry for the Store Norske Leksikon.
Allott, Nicholas and Shaer, Ben (2013) “Some linguistic properties of legal notices.” Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 43-62 58/1
Chan, Timothy (2013) “Introduction: Aiming at Truth.” In Chan, T. (ed.) The Aim of Belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chan, Timothy (ed.) (2013) The Aim of Belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gundersen, Eline Busck (2013) “Response-Dependence and Conditional Fallacy Problems” In Miguel Hoeltje, Benjamin Schnieder, Alex Steinberg (eds.) Varieties of Dependence. Munich: Philosophia Verlag
2012
Allott, Nicholas and Textor, Mark (2012) “Lexical pragmatic adjustment and ad hoc concepts.” International Review of Pragmatics, 4. 185-208.
Chan, Timothy (2012) “Review of Simon Robertson, Spheres of Reason.” Mind 121 (484):1122-1128.