In Search of a Theory of Reference Fixing

In Search of a Theory of Reference Fixing PDF Author: Ori Beck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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In Search of a Theory of Reference Fixing

In Search of a Theory of Reference Fixing PDF Author: Ori Beck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description


Roads to Reference

Roads to Reference PDF Author: Mario Gómez-Torrente
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019258524X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
How is it that words come to stand for the things they stand for? Is the thing that a word stands for - its reference - fully identified or described by conventions known to the users of the word? Or is there a more roundabout relation between the reference of a word and the conventions that determine or fix it? Do words like 'water', 'three', and 'red' refer to appropriate things, just as the word 'Aristotle' refers to Aristotle? If so, which things are these, and how do they come to be referred to by those words? In Roads to Reference, Mario Gómez-Torrente provides novel answers to these and other questions that have been of traditional interest in the theory of reference. The book introduces a number of cases of apparent indeterminacy of reference for proper names, demonstratives, and natural kind terms, which suggest that reference-fixing conventions for them adopt the form of lists of merely sufficient conditions for reference and reference failure. He then provides arguments for a new anti-descriptivist picture of those kinds of words, according to which the reference-fixing conventions for them do not describe their reference. This book also defends realist and objectivist accounts of the reference of ordinary natural kind nouns, numerals, and adjectives for sensible qualities. According to these accounts these words refer, respectively, to 'ordinary kinds', cardinality properties, and properties of membership in intervals of sensible dimensions, and these things are fixed in subtle ways by associated reference-fixing conventions.

Naming and Necessity

Naming and Necessity PDF Author: Saul A. Kripke
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674598461
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
If there is such a thing as essential reading in metaphysics or in philosophy of language, this is it. Ever since the publication of its original version, Naming and Necessity has had great and increasing influence. It redirected philosophical attention to neglected questions of natural and metaphysical necessity and to the connections between these and theories of reference, in particular of naming, and of identity. From a critique of the dominant tendency to assimilate names to descriptions and more generally to treat their reference as a function of their Fregean sense, surprisingly deep and widespread consequences may be drawn. The largely discredited distinction between accidental and essential properties, both of individual things (including people) and of kinds of things, is revived. So is a consequent view of science as what seeks out the essences of natural kinds. Traditional objections to such views are dealt with by sharpening distinctions between epistemic and metaphysical necessity; in particular by the startling admission of necessary a posteriori truths. From these, in particular from identity statements using rigid designators whether of things or of kinds, further remarkable consequences are drawn for the natures of things, of people, and of kinds; strong objections follow, for example to identity versions of materialism as a theory of the mind. This seminal work, to which today's thriving essentialist metaphysics largely owes its impetus, is here published with a substantial new Preface by the author.

Fixing Reference

Fixing Reference PDF Author: Imogen Dickie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198755619
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Imogen Dickie develops an account of aboutness-fixing for thoughts about ordinary objects, and of reference-fixing for the singular terms we use to express them. Extant discussions of this topic tread a weary path through descriptivist proposals, causalist alternatives, and attempts to combine the most attractive elements of each. The account developed here is a new beginning. It starts with two basic principles. The first connects aboutness and truth: a belief is about the object upon whose properties its truth or falsity depends. The second connects truth and justification: justification is truth conducive; in general and allowing exceptions, a subject whose beliefs are justified will be unlucky if they are not true, and not merely lucky if they are. These principles--one connecting aboutness and truth; the other truth and justification--combine to yield a third principle connecting aboutness and justification: a body of beliefs is about the object upon which its associated means of justification converges; the object whose properties a subject justifying beliefs in this way will be unlucky to get wrong and not merely luck to get right. The first part of the book proves a precise version of this principle. Its remaining chapters use the principle to explain how the relations to objects that enable us to think about them--perceptual attention; understanding of proper names; grasp of descriptions--do their aboutness-fixing and thought-enabling work. The book includes discussions of the nature of singular thought and the relation between thought and consciousness.

The Meaning of Meaning

The Meaning of Meaning PDF Author: Charles Kay Ogden
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language and languages
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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The Logic of Language

The Logic of Language PDF Author: Pieter A. M. Seuren
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199559481
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
This book opens a new perspective on logic. After analyzing the functional adequacy of natural predicate logic and standard modern logic for natural linguistic interaction, the author develops a general theory of discourse-bound interpretation, covering such topics as discourse incrementation, anaphora, presupposition and topic-comment structure.

The Conscious Mind

The Conscious Mind PDF Author: David J. Chalmers
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780195117899
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Writing in a rigorous, thought-provoking style, the author takes us on a far-reaching tour through the philosophical ramifications of consciousness, offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain.

Fixing Broken Windows

Fixing Broken Windows PDF Author: George L. Kelling
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684837382
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Cites successful examples of community-based policing.

The Philosophy of Science: A-M

The Philosophy of Science: A-M PDF Author: Sahotra Sarkar
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415977098
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
The first in-depth reference to the field that combines scientific knowledge with philosophical inquiry, this encyclopedia brings together a team of leading scholars to provide nearly 150 entries on the essential concepts in the philosophy of science. The areas covered include biology, chemistry, epistemology and metaphysics, physics, psychology and mind, the social sciences, and key figures in the combined studies of science and philosophy. (Midwest).

Referring to the World

Referring to the World PDF Author: Kenneth A. Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780195144758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description