ABSTRACT
Meaning is thus a precipitate of a lot of formal computation, and the real job of a theory of meaning is to discover the nature of this formal computation. The premise of Protagoras forbids us from talking about objective meaning as part of a theory of meaning, but it allows us to talk about the fitness of conceptual system, and even about the extremely high fitness of some of its components. Some ways of attributing meaning are virtually indispensable and not open to choice. To lack them is to suffer, perhaps fatally. Viewing reality as objective and objectively knowable is a fit habit, however embarrassing as a tenet of a theory of meaning. Different theories take different views as to what is configured within this arena, but the usual candidates include varieties of formalism, such as recursive function theory, geometrical thinking, predicate calculus, logic of some stripe, or certainly something that is assumed to transcend the body and its experience.
