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Ideas for 'Theaetetus', 'Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature' and 'Attack Upon Christendom'

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19. Language / B. Reference / 1. Reference theories
A theory of reference seems needed to pick out objects without ghostly inner states [Rorty]
     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".
     From: Richard Rorty (Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature [1980], 6.3)
     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.