Reprếntation in Early Chinese Philosophy of Language

Abstract

A common, historically influential view of language and mind is that language is a shared public medium through which we express inward mental contents that represent objects or situations in the world. The representational content of language is regarded as deriving from that of mental items-such as concepts, ideas, or impressions that are assumed to represent objects directly as a result of perception. Roughly this view has been associated with Aristotle's famous remark that "spoken sounds are symbols of affections in the soul," the affections being likenesses or images of objects.¹