The first major objection is, roughly, that Zouhar’s argument does not actually aim the core of the view that descriptions may be referring terms. Before I explain my objection, let me observe first that Zouhar does not carefully distinguish all possible positions concerning the semantics of descriptions which are presented in the literature. For example, he does not take into consideration a theory presented by Sainsbury (2004), according to which descriptions are referring expressions and so the sentences of the form “The F is G” have a simple logical form, though they have “Russellian” truth conditions (such an interpretation is possible in virtue of applying a free negative logic as a basis of formal semantic theory). Additionally, Zouhar ignores the proposal of Elbourne (2005) who conceives descriptions as complex referring terms and assigns “Fregean” truth conditions to the sentences with descriptions. What is characteristic for both aforementioned positions is that they claim that descriptions in their attributive use are devices of reference. It is important to note that such a view is immune to the Argument from Inference because we can account for inferences (1) and (2) properly on the ground of the theory of Sainsbury or Elbourne.
The fact that Zouhar does not take into consideration the aforementioned theories is not, however, a problem for his critique as yet. As it was noted, the author clearly targets the position that when the use of a description is referential (in Donnellanian sense), the description acquires a referential semantic content which cannot be captured by Russell’s quantificational analysis. However, the problem is that Zouhar relates this position to a conception of reference which is not accepted by all advocates of the position in question and which is, moreover, not essential to the idea that the referentially used descriptions have a different semantic interpretation than the attributively used ones. Let me explain this now.
As we may observe, analyses (R) and (MR) stipulate the truth conditions of subject-predicate sentences with descriptions. On the other hand, when Zouhar proceeds to his Argument from Inference, he starts to talk about the “propositions” expressed by such sentences. Obviously, this shift is understandable provided that we conceive validity of inferences in terms of the entailment-relation between the propositions expressed by the premise(s) and the conclusion(s). But what Zouhar simply does is to take—as the proposition expressed by “The F is G”—what stands on the right-hand of biconditionals (R) (or (MR) respectively.) Accordingly, the view that the referentially used descriptions are semantically referential has been related to the view that the proposition expressed by a referential statement has simply object d as a constituent: it has d as a constituent and ascribes G-hood to d (radical referentialism), or has d as a constituent and ascribes F-hood and G-hood to it (moderate referentialism).
It is quite obvious now that Zouhar places the idea that descriptions might have a semantic referential interpretation in the framework of the so-called “direct reference”. The idea standing behind this label is that a referring term (a name, an indexical etc.) contributes directly its referent to the proposition expressed—that is to say—the term contributes an element of the world to the semantic content of the sentence containing this term.Footnote 3 In fact, Zouhar explicitly commits himself to the direct-reference approach in some passages (e.g., he notes that the referentialism “has it that ‘the F’ contributes, to the proposition expressed […], an individual” (p. 31) and furthermore: “according to Devitt, Reimer, et al., it is what the description is used to refer to that enters to the proposition expressed by an utterance involving the description.”, p. 36, ft. 9).Footnote 4 With respect to this, it is important to emphasize that even the “moderate” referentialism—which Zouhar identifies with Devitt’s position—is forced into the framework of the direct reference. The only difference with respect to the radical referentialism is that the former claims that not solely the individual referred contributes to the proposition expressed, but also the property from the description.
To sum up, the Argument from Inference targets specifically the direct-reference approach to the semantics of referentially used descriptions. Let me proceed now to an explanation why I think this is problematic for Zouhar’s critique. First of all, not every theorist who claims that referentially used descriptions have a referential semantic interpretation explain their semantics in terms of direct reference. For instance—contrary to Zouhar’s remarks—Devitt distances himself from the view in question (he rejects it in many places, see: et al. 2012).Footnote 5 Setting his declaration aside, it is quite easy to recognize that his conception of referential meanings of descriptions is far from the direct-reference approach. Devitt identifies three elements which constitute the meaning of a referential description token. The core of the meaning is its reference-determining relation to the particular object that the speaker has in mind. This relation is, in turn, explained in terms of causal perceptual links to the object, in virtue of which a given thought is about that object. Secondly, Devitt acknowledges that nominal “F” also contributes to the meaning of a referential description token; however, he becomes neutral on the issue what this contribution is precisely. Finally, he observes that the convention of using “the F” referentially is somehow different from the one related to indefinite descriptions, and this convention ought to be taken into a full account of referential meanings. (Compare: Devitt 2004, pp. 290–5.)
In other words, in Devitt’s theory, the object referred is not taken to be a constituent of the referential meaning of a description token. Since, in general, what contributes to the proposition expressed by a sentence of the form “The F is G” is the meaning of “the F”, we cannot agree with Zouhar that “according to Devitt, what the description is used to refer to enters to the proposition expressed.” The individual referred does not enter the proposition expressed simply because it is not a constituent of the embedded description’s meaning. Presumably, the reason why Zouhar relates Devitt to the direct-reference approach is that Devitt uses the term of a “singular thought”—and by “singular propositions”, philosophers usually mean exactly the propositions which have individuals as their constituents. Nevertheless, Zouhar should not be misled by this fact, since Devitt explains what he means by “singularity” of a thought (2004, p. 290) and, surely, it has nothing to do with the direct-reference view.
So far, we have seen that the Argument from Inference does not actually target all possible versions of the view that referentially used descriptions have a referential semantic interpretation. However, one may say that this observation is irrelevant as an objection to Zouhar’s position, since his critique can be actually regarded as an attack on a particular version of the view in question, namely, the direct-referential kind. Moreover, this particular kind is not that unusual since there are philosophers who describe the “referentialism” about descriptions in a similar vein as Zouhar does, namely, they take it to be a position that a referentially used description introduces the referred object to the semantic content of the sentence (for example, Neale (1990, p. 65) seems to endorse a characterization of “referentialism” equivalent to Zouhar’s characterization of “radical referentialism”). So, as one may conclude, Zouhar’s argument can still be found as relevant in the debate on the semantics of the referentially used descriptions.
Nonetheless, I think that the above attempt of defending Zouhar’s argument is unconvincing. The first general point is that an equation of the “referentialism” about the semantics of referentially used descriptions with the direct-reference account of them—even if not specific to Zouhar alone—is simply incorrect. The problem concerning Donnellan’s “attributive/referential” distinction is whether the latter use determines a different semantic convention, that is, whether a referentially used token of a description has a kind of a “referential” meaning which is not captured by Russellian quantificational interpretation. If someone accepts this thesis, he may describe this “referential” meaning in various ways and the direct-reference approach is just one of the options. Hence, if Zouhar’s goal is to target specifically the direct-reference account of the referentially used descriptions, his argument misses the core of the problem concerning their semantics. Secondly, I believe that it would be inadequate to interpret Zouhar’s intention as if he wanted to reject only a particular variant of the view that the referential use is semantically significant. Observe that the author has not even made the slightest suggestion that among various versions of the view in question, he is targeting only specific one(s). On the contrary, he assumes that his argument has an essentially wider application. As we have seen, Zouhar argues that even a causal-perceptual conception of reference (like the one of Devitt)—which he erroneously puts in the framework of direct reference—does not deliver an adequate account of the semantics of the referentially used descriptions. In other words, it is not a problem that the Argument from Inference has a narrow application; the point is that it has much more limited application than its author assumes it to have.
Finally, I think that the most problematic issue in Zouhar’s adoption of the direct-reference framework is that his analysis implies a quite implausible version of this view with regards to the referentially used descriptions. Observe that the letter “d”—as its stands on the right-hand of the biconditionals (R) and (MR)—functions like a proper name or an individual constant referring to an object the speaker has in mind by using “the F”. If it is an expression of this kind, then it refers to the same object no matter which particular context we consider. But this is plainly wrong. Obviously, the speaker may use “the F” to refer to different objects in various contexts and the analyses provided by Zouhar do not actually account for this fact. In other words, it would be equally wrong to ascribe the following truth conditions to an utterance of “I am tall”:
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(3)
“I am tall” iff James ∈ TALL,
where “TALL” denotes the set of tall individuals and “James” is a constant name denoting a certain man. Presumably, what Zouhar should consider is the following way of specifying the truth conditions of utterances with referentially used descriptions:
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(R*) An utterance of ‘The F is G’ is true relative to context C iff the object that the utterer of ‘The F’ has in mind in C ∈ G.
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(MR*) An utterance of ‘The F is G’ is true relative to context C iff the object that the utterer of ‘The F’ has in mind in C ∈ G and it ∈ F.
With respect to this, observe that when it comes to conducting a test in order to check whether the theory based on (R*) and (MR*) can distinguish valid inferences from the invalid ones, we should firstly consider a particular context of use, since it is the context which helps us determine the proposition which is expressed by a referential utterance. Afterwards, i.e., once we establish what particular propositions are expressed in a given context, we should ask ourselves whether the proposition(s) expressed by the premise(s) entail(s) (or not—depending on what the theory predicts) the proposition expressed by the conclusion.
In sum, the first major problem with the Argument from Inference is that it targets specifically the direct-referential approach to the semantics of referentially used descriptions. As I have argued, this fact is problematic for Zouhar’s consideration in several ways. Firstly, the direct-reference approach is irrelevant to the idea that the referentially used descriptions are referring terms. Secondly, Zouhar assumes that his Argument has an essentially wider application than it really does. Thirdly, by ignoring context-sensitivity of descriptions, Zouhar identifies their semantics with the standard semantics of proper names or individual constants. The resulting account is highly improbable given the direct-reference framework.