The Problem of the Essential Indexical and Other Essays, Expanded Edition - Hardcover

Perry, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1575862468 ISBN 13: 9781575862460

Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf, 2001

Synopsis

No word in English is shorter than the word ``I.'' And yet no word is more important in philosophy. When Descartes said ``I think therefore I am'' he produced something that was both about himself and a universal formula. The word ``I'' is called an ``indexical'' because its meaning always depends on who says it. Other examples of indexicals are ``you,'' ``here,'' ``this'' and ``now.''

John Perry discusses how these kinds of words work, and why they express important philosophical thoughts. He shows that indexicals pose a challenge to traditional assumptions about language and thought. Over the years a number of these papers, now included in this book, have sparked lively debates and have been influential in philosophy, linguistics and other areas of cognitive science.

With seven new papers, including the previously unpublished ``What Are Indexicals?,'' the present volume expands on an earlier version of this book published in the early nineties. Also included are the well-known papers ``Frege on Demonstratives,'' ``Cognitive Significance and New Theories of Reference,'' ``Evading the Slingshot,'' ``The Prince and the Phone booth'' (coauthored with Mark Crimmins), ``Fodor on Psychological Explanations'' (coauthored with David Israel), and related papers on situation semantics, direct reference, and the structure of belief. This book also includes afterwords written by the author that discuss responses to his work by Gareth Evans, Robert Stalnaker, Barbara Partee, Howard Wettstein and others.

About this title

Book Description

This book includes famous papers such as 'The Problem of the Essential Indexical' and 'Frege on Demonstratives' and 'Cognitive Significance and New Theories of Reference' and related papers on situation semantics, direct reference, and the structure of belief.

From the Back Cover

A collection of twelve essays by John Perry and two essays he co-authored, this book deals with various problems related to "self-locating beliefs": the sorts of beliefs one expresses with indexicals and demonstratives, like "I" and "this". In the early essays, Perry argues that an account of these beliefs requires us to distinguish what is believed from how it is believed, and the rest of the essays discuss various aspects and implications of that distinction and issues closely related to it. Included with such well-known essays as "Frege on Demonstratives", "The Problem of the Essential Indexical", "From Worlds to Situations", and "The Prince and the Phone Booth" are a number of important essays that have been less accessible and that discuss important aspects of Perry's views, which stem from the area of thought referred to as "Critical Referentialism" on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. In addition, postscripts have been added to a number of the essays discussing criticisms by authors such as Gareth Evans and Robert Stalnaker.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1575862468
• ISBN 13: 9781575862460
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 428