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Full Idea
Our theory can be summarized as saying that words like 'water' have an unnoticed indexical component: "water" is stuff that bears a certain similarity relation to the water around here.
Clarification
'Indexicals' typically involve pointing as well as speaking
Gist of Idea
'Water' has an unnoticed indexical component, referring to stuff around here
Source
Hilary Putnam (Meaning and Reference [1973], p.160)
Book Ref
'Meaning and Reference', ed/tr. Moore,A.W. [OUP 1993], p.160
A Reaction
This is the causal theory of reference, which leads to externalism about concepts, which leads to an externalist view of thought, which undermines internal accounts of the mind like functionalism, and leaves little room for scepticism… Etc.
| 9168 | I can't distinguish elm trees, but I mean by 'elm' the same set of trees as everybody else [Putnam] |
| 5817 | Language is more like a cooperative steamship than an individual hammer [Putnam] |
| 5818 | If water is H2O in the actual world, there is no possible world where it isn't H2O [Putnam] |
| 5819 | Conceivability is no proof of possibility [Putnam] |
| 9169 | A statement can be metaphysically necessary and epistemologically contingent [Putnam] |
| 5820 | 'Water' has an unnoticed indexical component, referring to stuff around here [Putnam] |
| 9170 | We need to recognise the contribution of society and of the world in determining reference [Putnam] |