Nat Hansen talks about his work on the philosophical foundations of the experimental investigation of meaning. Part of his work involves running experiments that evaluate the claims that philosophers have made about word use and meaning, but he’s also interested in aspects of meaning that may not be available to experimental investigation. Hansen begins by pointing out ways in which our own use of words is not transparent to us. Running experiments is one way of getting a more objective look at how we actually speak, and Hansen goes on to explain some of his recent experimental work. One line of investigation concerns claims that J.L. Austin makes about our use of words like 'intentionally' and 'deliberately' to describe actions. A second involves our use of color terms ('green' and 'red', for example) and tests the claims that have been made about the context sensitivity of meaning in connection with these words. Hansen argues that this kind of work shows that experiments can reveal aspects of the meanings of particular words and how we speak that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Nat Hansen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading.