Exposing the background

deep and local

Daniel Hutto

pp. 37-56

in: Zdravko Radman (ed), Knowing without thinking, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

Humans engage with the world and one another in sophisticated ways that (arguably) creatures lacking language cannot. Language (again, arguably) enables us to communicate meaningfully, to form contentful attitudes and intentions, and to design and execute plans so as to satisfy our needs and desires. Yet, for this to be so, a great deal that is not captured in terms of explicit content, necessarily, informs everything we expressly say, explicitly think and deliberately do.