Fixing Reference (Context & Content) - Hardcover

Dickie, Imogen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198755619 ISBN 13: 9780198755616

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Imogen Dickie develops an account of aboutness-fixing for thoughts about ordinary objects, and of reference-fixing for the singular terms we use to express them. Extant discussions of this topic tread a weary path through descriptivist proposals, causalist alternatives, and attempts to combine the most attractive elements of each. The account developed here is a new beginning. It starts with two basic principles. The first connects aboutness and truth: a belief is about the object upon whose properties its truth or falsity depends. The second connects truth and justification: justification is truth conducive; in general and allowing exceptions, a subject whose beliefs are justified will be unlucky if they are not true, and not merely lucky if they are. These principles--one connecting aboutness and truth; the other truth and justification--combine to yield a third principle connecting aboutness and justification: a body of beliefs is about the object upon which its associated means of justification converges; the object whose properties a subject justifying beliefs in this way will be unlucky to get wrong and not merely luck to get right. The first part of the book proves a precise version of this principle. Its remaining chapters use the principle to explain how the relations to objects that enable us to think about them--perceptual attention; understanding of proper names; grasp of descriptions--do their aboutness-fixing and thought-enabling work. The book includes discussions of the nature of singular thought and the relation between thought and consciousness.

About this title

About the Author

Imogen Dickie is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto.

Review

"In this challenging and welcome contribution, Imogen Dickie presents an interesting account of a rich debate that has occupied, among others, philosophers of language and mind over the last few decades...Dickie's contribution should be viewed as a novel addition and enrichment." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Dickie's Fixing Reference develops an original, ambitious proposal" - Una Stogni?, Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0198755619
• ISBN 13: 9780198755616
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 344