The Philosophy of Language Models

Journal article

The success of large language models (LLMs) across many domains of AI research has generated intense debate. Some attribute their impressive performance on complex tasks to human‐like linguistic and cognitive capacities, whereas others ascribe it to shallow pattern matching. These disputes stem from deep‐seated philosophical disagreements about the nature of language and cognition. We provide an opinionated survey of these disagreements across core topics in the philosophy of mind and language, including syntactic competence, compositionality, linguistic meaning, representation, attitudes, reasoning, agency, and consciousness. We contend that progress on these issues requires not only clarity about background philosophical commitments but also, in many cases, close engagement with emerging empirical evidence.

Authors: Millière, R; Buckner, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Philosophy Compass
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 3
• Article number: e70095
• Publication date: 2026-06-09
• Acceptance date: 2026-05-18
• DOI: 10.1111/phc3.70095
• EISSN: 1747-9991
• ISSN: 1747-9991
• Language: English