Skip to main content

Referring When Push-Comes-to-Shove

  • Chapter
New Waves in Philosophy of Language

Part of the book series: New Waves in Philosophy ((NWIP))

  • 219 Accesses

Abstract

The anchoring focus of this chapter is a cluster of complaints that have been raised against reference-based approaches to semantics, in particular against the view defended by Scott Soames (2002). I am going to lump the complaints that I have in mind under the heading of the Threat of Collapse (or the Threat, for short). At the heart of the Threat of Collapse is the accusation that various moves referentialists make in dealing with well-known problems undercut the motivations for a reference-based semantics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • Bach, K. (2001) ‘You Don’t Say?’, Synthese, 128(1/2), 15–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, N. (1986) ‘Advertisement for a Semantics of Psychology’, in P.A. French, T.E.J. Uehling, and H.K. Wettstein (eds) Midwest Studies in Philosophy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, D. (2005) ‘Empty Names, Fictional Names, Mythical Names’, Nous, 39(4), 596–631.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, D. (2006) ‘Illogical but Rational’, Nous, 40(2), 376–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, D. (2008) ‘Complex Demonstratives and Their Singular Contents’, Linguistics and Philosophy, 31(1), 57–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, D. and Sider, T. (2006) ‘Kripke’s Revenge’, Philosophical Studies, 128, 669–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caplan, B. (2007) ‘Millian Descriptivism’, Philosophical Studies, 133(2), 181–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carston, R. (2002) ‘Linguistic Meaning, Communicated Meaning and Cognitive Pragmatics’, Mind & Language, 17(1-2), 127–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins, M. (1992) Talk about Beliefs (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, M. (2007) On Sense and Direct Reference: Readings in the Philosophy of Language (Boston: McGraw-Hill).

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnellan, K. (1970) ‘Proper Names and Identifying Descriptions’, Synthese, 21, 335–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dretske, F.I. (1981) Knowledge and the Flow of Information (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, K. (ms) ‘Keeping Reference in Mind’, Paper delivered at the Pacific meeting of the American Philosophical Association, April 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J.A. (1975) The Language of Thought (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J.A. (1981) Representations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science, 1st MIT Press edn (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J.A. (1992) A Theory of Content and Other Essays (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J.A. (1998) Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J.A. (2004) ‘Having Concepts: A Brief Refutation of the Twentieth Century’, Mind & Language, 19(1), 29–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J.A. (2008) LOT 2: The Language of Thought Revisited (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J.A. and Lepore, E. (2002) The Compositionality Papers (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Frege, G. (1952) ‘On Sense and Reference’, Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege (Oxford: Basic Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, G. (1982) ‘Conceptual Role Semantics’, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 23(2), 242–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, D. (1989) ‘Demonstratives’, in J. Almog, J. Perry, and H. Wettstein (eds) Themes from Kaplan (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kripke, S. (1977) ‘Speaker’s Reference and Semantic Reference’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 2, 255–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kripke, S. (1979) ‘A Puzzle about Belief’, in A. Margalit (ed.) Meaning and Use (Dordrecht: D. Reidel).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kripke, S. (1980) Naming and Necessity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Loar, B. (1981) Mind and Meaning (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Loar, B. (1987) ‘Names in Thought’, Philosophical Studies, 51, 169–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKay, T. (1981) ‘On Proper Names in Belief Ascriptions’, Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 39(3), 287–303.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinsey, M. (2005) ‘Critical Notice of Scott Soames, Beyond Rigidity’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 35(1), 149–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill, J.S. (1858) A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, 5th edn (New York: Harper & Brothers).

    Google Scholar 

  • Millikan, R.G. (1993) White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale, S. (2004a) ‘Pragmatism and Binding’, in Z. Szabo (ed.) Semantics and Pragmatics (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale, S. (2004b) ‘This, That, and the Other’, in A. Bezuidenhout (ed.) Descriptions and Beyond (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale, S. (ms) ‘Linguistic Pragmatism’, Unpublished manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peacocke, C. (1992) A Study of Concepts (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Recanati, F. (2001) ‘What Is Said’, Synthese, 128(1-2), 75–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, B. (1905) ‘On Denoting’, Mind, 14(56), 479–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, N. (1986) Frege’s Puzzle (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, N. (1989a) ‘How to Become a Millian Heir’, Nous (23), 211–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, N. (1989b) ‘Illogical Belief’, Philosophical Perspectives (Atascadero: Ridgeview).

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, N. (2005) Reference and Essence, 2nd edn (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • Soames, S. (1997) ‘Direct Reference, Propositional Attitudes, and Semantic Content’, in P. Ludlow (ed.) Readings in the Philosophy of Language (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Soames, S. (2002) Beyond Rigidity: The Unfinished Semantic Agenda of Naming and Necessity (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Soames, S. (2005) ‘“Beyond Rigidity”: Reply to McKinsey’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 35(1), 169–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soames, S. (ms) ‘What Are Natural Kinds?’, Forthcoming in Philosophical Topics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thau, M. (2002) Consciousness and Cognition (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2010 Kevan Edwards

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Edwards, K. (2010). Referring When Push-Comes-to-Shove. In: Sawyer, S. (eds) New Waves in Philosophy of Language. New Waves in Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230248588_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics