back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 14201

[from 'Reason, Truth and History' by Hilary Putnam, in 19. Language / B. Reference / 3. Direct Reference / c. Social reference ]

Full Idea

One might concede that the reference of a person's term isn't fixed by his individual mental state, but insist that the total mental state of all the members of the language community fixes the reference of the term.

Gist of Idea

Maybe the total mental state of a language community fixes the reference of a term

Source

Hilary Putnam (Reason, Truth and History [1981], Ch.2)

Book Reference

Putnam,Hilary: 'Reason, Truth and History' [CUP 1998], p.24


A Reaction

I like this reading of the problem, though Putnam himself prefers to say that things fix the reference. I take reference to be a human action, not a natural causal relation. Animals connecting thought to object may not count as reference at all.

Related Idea

Idea 14202 Neither individual nor community mental states fix reference [Putnam]