more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 2562
[filed under theme 19. Language / B. Reference / 1. Reference theories
]
Full Idea
The need to pick out objects without the help of definitions, essences, and meanings of terms produced, philosophers thought, a need for a "theory of reference".
Gist of Idea
A theory of reference seems needed to pick out objects without ghostly inner states
Source
Richard Rorty (Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature [1980], 6.3)
Book Ref
Rorty,Richard: 'Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature' [Blackwell 1980], p.274
A Reaction
Frege's was very perceptive in noting that meaning and reference are not the same. Whether we need a 'theory' of reference is unclear. It is worth describing how it occurs.
The
29 ideas
with the same theme
[way language-terms connect with things in reality]:
1757
|
The Electra: she knows this man, but not that he is her brother
[Eucleides, by Diog. Laertius]
|
21399
|
Referring to a person, and speaking about him, are very different
[Seneca]
|
23646
|
Reference is by name, or a term-plus-circumstance, or ostensively, or by description
[Reid]
|
7634
|
Icons resemble their subject, an index is a natural sign, and symbols are conventional
[Peirce, by Maund]
|
4981
|
The reference of a word should be understood as part of the reference of the sentence
[Frege]
|
4567
|
Russell argued with great plausibility that we rarely, if ever, refer with our words
[Russell, by Cooper,DE]
|
4145
|
How do words refer to sensations?
[Wittgenstein]
|
8470
|
Reference is inscrutable, because we cannot choose between theories of numbers
[Quine, by Orenstein]
|
4712
|
Quine says there is no matter of fact about reference - it is 'inscrutable'
[Quine, by O'Grady]
|
18898
|
In standard logic, names are the only way to refer
[Sommers]
|
6271
|
How reference is specified is not what reference is
[Putnam]
|
2562
|
A theory of reference seems needed to pick out objects without ghostly inner states
[Rorty]
|
6388
|
Is reference the key place where language and the world meet?
[Davidson]
|
6390
|
With a holistic approach, we can give up reference in empirical theories of language
[Davidson]
|
4566
|
Any thesis about reference is also a thesis about what exists to be referred to
[Cooper,DE]
|
4571
|
Reference need not be a hit-or-miss affair
[Cooper,DE]
|
12642
|
Co-referring terms differ if they have different causal powers
[Fodor]
|
12663
|
We refer to individuals and to properties, and we use singular terms and predicates
[Fodor]
|
10447
|
We can refer to fictional entities if they are abstract objects
[Bach]
|
10446
|
Fictional reference is different inside and outside the fiction
[Bach]
|
10443
|
You 'allude to', not 'refer to', an individual if you keep their identity vague
[Bach]
|
13885
|
If apparent reference can mislead, then so can apparent lack of reference
[Wright,C]
|
4995
|
Behaviourists doubt whether reference is a single type of relation
[Kirk,R]
|
9336
|
A concept's reference is what makes true the beliefs of its possession conditions
[Peacocke, by Horwich]
|
18886
|
Frege's 'sense' solves four tricky puzzles
[Salmon,N]
|
22244
|
'Partial reference' is when the subject thinks two objects are one object
[Field,H, by Recanati]
|
21615
|
References to the 'greatest prime number' have no reference, but are meaningful
[Williamson]
|
16356
|
There may be two types of reference in language and thought: descriptive and direct
[Recanati]
|
12791
|
It is said that proper reference is our intellectual link with the world
[Laycock]
|