(Download) "John Perry, Reference and Reflexivity (Notas Bibliograficas)" by Critica * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: John Perry, Reference and Reflexivity (Notas Bibliograficas)
- Author : Critica
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Reference,Books,Religion & Spirituality,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 86 KB
Description
John Perry, Reference and Reflexivity, CSLI Publications, Stanford, 2001, 208 pp. In this accessible yet also challenging book Perry attempts to find a via media between the referential paradigm, according to which the semantic contributions of referential uses of proper names and indexicals (including demonstratives) are simply referents, and the descriptivist paradigm, according to which the semantic contributions of referential uses of such expressions are identifying conditions. The fundamental move that makes theoretical space between these venerable paradigms is appreciation of what Perry calls "the subject matter fallacy": "The subject matter fallacy is supposing that the content of a statement or a belief is wholly constituted by the conditions its truth puts on the subject matter of the statement or belief" (p. 50). Recognition of the subject matter fallacy allows Perry to claim that a statement containing a proper name or indexical used referentially has not just one content, but several contents: in addition to its "referential content," which Perry identifies with "what is said", the statement will have several levels of "reflexive content". The compromise between referentialism and descriptivism is then achieved by maintaining that referentialism is (usually) the correct view concerning the "what is said" content of statements, while descriptivism is the correct view concerning the other contents of statements. Or as Perry puts it,