Place: Carlos Santamaria
Every first and third Wednesday of the month starting on February 2 till April 20, 2022.
We will read 20 pages for each session, which will be commented by one participant and then we will discuss and clarify the main issues that we find. Sessions will be on Wednesdays from 15:00 to 17:00.
Attendance is free, but if you are willing to attend, please send and email to
benat.esnaola@ehu.eus with your name and affiliation.
Abstract:
By separating constitutive, epistemic, and aetiological determination, the need for an
intention-based theory of reference and the irrelevance of context to the constitution
of reference can both be established. In “Indexicals and the Theory of Reference”
(1981), Schiffer analyses speaker reference in terms of speaker meaning: S refers to o
in uttering x just in case, in uttering x, S means an o-dependent proposition. This paves
the way for an analysis of referring to o by way of (occurrence) i of (expression) e in x.
But S may refer to o though there is no phonic expression (perhaps no expression at
all) in x by which S refers to o. Since the analyses attribute complex propositional
attitudes to speakers (regarding expression occurrences and their properties), if there
are aphonic referring expressions it seems to require attributing to speakers knowledge
of such expressions and their properties. But it is doubtful ordinary speakers possess
such knowledge. This creates a serious problem for both intention-based theories of
reference and the postulation of aphonic referring expressions.
Keywords: aphonic expression, expression occurrence, speaker meaning, speaker
reference, meaning-intention problem, object-dependent proposition
Organizer: Beñat Esnaola
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