FOUNDATIONS OF UNDERSTANDING -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- CHAPTER ONE Introduction -- 1. Intentionality -- 2. Understanding -- 3. The experience of understanding -- 4. A foundationalist theory of conscious understanding -- 5. Plan of the book -- Note -- CHAPTER TWO The Sensorimotor Theory of Cognition -- 1. Background -- 2. The sensorimotor theory and mental models -- 3. Evidence from human reasoning -- 4. Evidence from brain organization -- 5. Ape cognition and evolution -- 6. Parsimony -- 7. Objections -- 8. Conclusion -- Notes -- CHAPTER THREE Understanding Actions -- 1. Introduction: Searle's challenge -- 2. Understanding our actions -- 3. Provisional characterization (1) -- 4. Provisional characterization (2) -- 5. Provisional characterization (3) -- 6. Final characterization (4) -- 7. Searle's understanding -- Notes -- Chapter Four Understanding Objects -- 1. Introduction: object use as foundational -- 2. Object perception -- 3. Object understanding as conceptual -- 4. Meaningfulness vs. correct meaning -- 5. Meaningful objects -- 6. Characterizing object understanding -- 7. First approximation -- 8. Second approximation -- 9. Third approximation -- 10. Imagining objects: the problem of illusion -- 11. Kinds of objects -- 12. Conclusion: objects and objectivity -- Note -- CHAPTER FIVE Error and the External World -- 1. Introduction: understanding the mind-world distinction -- 2. Error as the basis of the mind-world distinction -- 3. Action error -- 4. Action planning and external reality -- 5. Action, belief, and metaphor -- 6. The bifurcation of cognitive understanding -- Notes -- CHAPTER SIX Understanding Persons -- 1. From actions and objects to language -- 2. Persons, understanding and communication -- 3. Understanding as knowing how.

4. Literal and metaphorical understanding -- 5. The mechanism of metaphorical understanding -- 6. The infant's 'theory of mind' -- 7. Understanding the actions of others -- 8. Understanding persons -- 9. The intentional stance and metaphorical understanding -- 10. Imitation and communication -- 11. Conclusion -- CHAPTER SEVEN Understanding Language -- 1. Introduction: language as a tool -- 2. Language production as tool use -- 3. The neuroanatomy of language production -- 4. Language consumption as model construction -- 5. Language understanding and imagery -- 6. Images are multimodal -- 7. The descriptionalist challenge -- 8. Understanding and image creation -- 9. Imagery and indeterminacy -- 10. Imagery and abstraction -- 11. Imagery and mental models -- 12. Combining the two aspects of language understanding -- 13. Neural correlates of knowledge partitioning -- Notes -- CHAPTER EIGHT The Elements of Conscious Experience -- 1. The phenomenality of conscious experience -- 2. Characterizing conscious experience -- 3. Externality -- 4. Unity -- 5. Self-awareness -- 6. Awareness itself -- CHAPTER NINE Conclusion -- 1. Summary -- 2. The preeminence of the linguistic paradigm -- 3. Understanding and semantic structure: iceberg and tip -- References -- Index.