more on this theme
|
more from this thinker
Single Idea 18410
[filed under theme 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 9. Indexical Thought
]
Full Idea
Very roughly, we can say that to think of something indexically is to think of it in relation to me, as I am presented to myself in self-consciousness.
Gist of Idea
Indexical thought is in relation to my self-consciousness
Source
Colin McGinn (Subjective View: sec qualities and indexicals [1983], 2)
Book Ref
McGinn,Colin: 'The Subjective View' [OUP 1983], p.17
A Reaction
So it is characterised relationally, which doesn't mean it has a distinctive intrinsic character. If I'm lost, and I overhear someone say 'Peter is in Hazlemere', I get the same relational information (in a different mode) without the indexicality.
The
19 ideas
from 'Subjective View: sec qualities and indexicals'
22413
|
Being red simply consists in looking red
[McGinn]
|
22415
|
Relativity means differing secondary perceptions are not real disagreements
[McGinn]
|
22416
|
Phenomenalism is correct for secondary qualities, so scepticism is there impossible
[McGinn]
|
22412
|
Lockean secondary qualities (unlike primaries) produce particular sensory experiences
[McGinn]
|
22414
|
You don't need to know how a square thing looks or feels to understand squareness
[McGinn]
|
18410
|
Indexical thought is in relation to my self-consciousness
[McGinn]
|
22417
|
Indexicals do not figure in theories of physics, because they are not explanatory causes
[McGinn]
|
22418
|
I can know indexical truths a priori, unlike their non-indexical paraphrases
[McGinn]
|
22420
|
The indexical perspective is subjective, incorrigible and constant
[McGinn]
|
22423
|
Touch doesn't provide direct experience of primary qualities, because touch feels temperature
[McGinn]
|
22426
|
We can perceive objectively, because primary qualities are not mind-created
[McGinn]
|
18402
|
Indexical concepts are indispensable, as we need them for the power to act
[McGinn]
|
22421
|
Could there be a mind which lacked secondary quality perception?
[McGinn]
|
22424
|
Secondary qualities contain information; their variety would be superfluous otherwise
[McGinn]
|
22425
|
The utility theory says secondary qualities give information useful to human beings
[McGinn]
|
22422
|
Maybe all possible sense experience must involve both secondary and primary qualities
[McGinn]
|
22427
|
To explain object qualities, primary qualities must be more than mere sources of experience
[McGinn]
|
22428
|
You understood being red if you know the experience involved; not so with thngs being square
[McGinn]
|
7629
|
We see objects 'directly' by representing them
[McGinn]
|