The Work of Charles Travis

The chapter explains the leading ideas of Charles Travis in relation to three main topics and offers first-pass responses to some general objections to Travis’s general philosophical orientation to the topics. Firstly, regarding linguistic meaning, it is argued that occasion-sensitivity poses a novel set of problems for standard construals of truth-conditional semantics. Secondly, regarding the structure of thought, it is explained how much the same issues arise for thought as they do for language. Thirdly, regarding perception, Travis’s distinctive flavour of disjunctivism is explained. The chapter also seeks to situate Travis’s thought in relation to Wittgenstein and more contemporary thinkers such as Jerry Fodor.