Single Idea 22247

[catalogued under 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 9. Indexical Thought]

Full Idea

People once took indexicality to be exclusively a property of language, ....but a series of examples seemed to establish that the thought expressed by uttering an indexical sentence is itself indexical (and is thus 'essential').

Gist of Idea

Indexicality is not just a feature of language; examples show it also occurs in thought

Source

François Recanati (Mental Files in Flux [2016], 6.1)

Book Reference

Recanati,François: 'Mental Files in Flux' [OUP 2016], p.97


A Reaction

Perry's example of not realising it is him leaking the sugar in a supermarket is the best known example. Was this a key moment for realising that philosophy of thought is (pace Dummett) more important than philosophy of language?