The notion of a propositional content plays a central role in contemporary philosophy of language. Propositional content makes up both the meaning of sentences and the content of propositional attitudes such as belief. One particular view about propositional content has been dominant in analytic philosophy, namely the Fregean conception of propositions as abstract mind-independent objects that come with truth conditions. But propositions in this sense raise a range of issues, which have become a center of debate in current philosophy of language. In particular, how should propositions as abstract objects be understood and how can they represent things and be true or false? A number of philosophers in contemporary analytic philosophy as well as in early analytic philosophy and phenomenology have approached the notion of a propositional content in a different way, not by starting out with an abstract truth berarer, but by focusing on cognitive acts of agents, such as acts of judging. It is in terms of such acts that the notion of a propositional content, on their view, should be understood.The act-based perspective historically goes back to the work of Central European philosophers, in particular that of Husserl, Twardowski, Meinong, and Reinach. However, their work has been unduly neglected and is in fact largely inaccessible to contemporary analytic philosophers. The volume presents a central selection of work of these philosophers that bear on an act-based conception of philosophical content, some of which in new translations (one paper by Reinach), some of which published in English for the very first time (two papers by Twardowski).In addition, the volume presents new work by leading contemporary philosophers of language pursuing or discussing an act-based conception of propositional content. Moreover, the book contains a crosslinguistic study of nominalizations for actions and products, a distinction that plays a central role in the philosophy of language of Twardowski.

I Historical PerspectivesChapter 1- Husserl, Edmund: Excerpts from Logical InvestigationsChapter 2 - Meinong, Alexius: Excerpts from On AssumptionsChapter 3 - Reinach, Adolf: Excerpts from On the Theory of the Negative Judgment (with an introduction by Mark Textor)Chapter 4 - Twardowski, Kazmierz: The Psychology of ThinkingTwardowski, Kazmierz: Theory of JudgmentTwardowski, Kazmierz: Actions and Products. Some Remarks from the Borderline of Psychology, Grammar, and Logic.Chapter 5 - Miskiewicz, Wioletta: The theory of objects in On Actions and Products. A note on the translationMiskiewicz, Wioletta: 'On Actions and Products (1911) by Kazimierz Twardowski: its historical genesis and philosophical impact.II Contemporary PerspectivesChapter 1 - Soames, Scott: For Want of Cognitively Defined Propositions. A History of Insights and Lost OpportunitiesChapter 2 - Fiengo, Robert: Austin's Cube: The Speech Acts of AssertingChapter 3 - Hanks, Peter: Propositions, Synonymy, and Compositional SemanticsChapter 4 - Moltmann, Friederike: Cognitive Products and the Semantics of Attitude Verbs and Deontic ModalsChapter 5 - Textor, Mark: Judgement, Perception and PredicationChapter 6 - Ripley, David: Bilateralism, Coherentism, and WarrantChapter 7 - Gerner, Matthias: Actions and Products Worldwide