Full Idea
My view inherits from Frege 'modes of presentation'. Reference is not enough, and sense is needed. …We must make room for non-descriptive modes of presentation, and these are mental files.
Gist of Idea
We need sense as well as reference, but in a non-descriptive form, and mental files do that
Source
François Recanati (Mental Files [2012], 18.1)
Book Reference
Recanati,François: 'Mental Files' [OUP 2012], p.243
A Reaction
[compressed] Recanati aims to avoid the standard Kripkean criticisms of descriptivism, while being able to handle Frege's puzzles. I take Recanati's mental files theory to be the most promising approach.