Communication as Agreement

Abstract:

The purpose of this talk is to present and develop an agreement-first account of communication, which treats successful communication as a form of agreement. This is part of a more general project of developing an agreement-first approach to language and thought. The general idea behind the agreement-first approach is to take agreement and disagreement as a starting point for explaining other linguistic and mental phenomena. According to the standard approach, agreement and disagreement are explained in terms of relations among thoughts, such as beliefs and desires. The agreement-first approach reverses the order of explanation by explaining thoughts, such as beliefs and desires, in terms of agreement and disagreement.