The problem of reference is central, and largely unresolved, in linguistics, cognitive science and epistemology. The aim of this book is to explain the reference of lexical terms (especially proper names, demonstrative pronouns and personal pronouns). The specific issues: how to account for the reference of names that are empty or speculative, which abound in science and philosophy? How to account for intentional reference as in 'he took Mary to be Jane' or 'if that were George, he would have called John'?Naming and Reference begins by surveying the history of the subject, within a philosophical and critical setting, from Locke, Brentano, Peirce, Frege, Russell, Strawson, Tarski, Carnap and Quine up to Kripke and Fodor. In this fascinating account the author explores and evaluates several of the key debates in the analytic tradition.The rest of the book is devoted to the author's own solution to the problem of naming and referring. His algorithmic theory of reference is derived from Peirce's idea that signification is a three-way relation between a term, an object, and an interpretant. The theory rounds-out the causal notion of reference, while at the same time preserving Frege's distinction between sense and reference, and making a place for indexical items.By using various computer models, an exploration is made of the meaning and reference of words to objects and the relation of these phenomena to perception, belief and truth. The models used are parallel, connectionist computational models rather than the sequential models of mid-century artificial intelligence. The aim, in opposition to nativist and mental representation theories, is to account for the genesis of semantically interpretable symbols, not to assume them. It presents an important alternative to Chomsky's psychology of language.The author approaches this work from a background in mathematics and computing (senior mathematician at IBM), as well as in philosophy. Students of philosophy of language, mind and logic, as well as those studying in the areas of cognitive science and artificial intelligence, will find this book invaluable. As a source of information and inspiration for readers and workers from the areas of cognitive science and psychology, linguistics, computer science, as well as neuroscience and brain biology, Naming and Reference is ideal.