Expressivism and the agreement account of expression

Abstract

According to expressivism, normative sentences express desire-like states of mind. But what is the expression relation? In this paper, I defend an underexplored account of the expression relation that I call ‘the agreement account’. I begin by identifying three constraints that an expressivist account of expression must satisfy. I then argue that extant accounts of the expression relation fail to satisfy these constraints. I then outline the agreement account of expression, according to which a sentence S expresses a mental state M if and only if and because M is part of the agreement conditions of S. I defend this account against objections and conclude that the agreement account is a promising expressivist account of expression.