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6140 | Maybe the word 'I' can only refer to persons [Merricks] |
Full Idea: One might say that the word 'I' can only have a person as its reference. | |
From: Trenton Merricks (Objects and Persons [2003], §2.IV) | |
A reaction: To infer the existence of persons from this would be to commit what I think of as the Linguistic Fallacy, of deducing ontology directly from language. We might allow (Dennett fashion) that folk categories require the fiction of persons. |