Referential mechanics : direct reference and the foundations of semantics

175 Pages·2014·0.632 MB·English

by  Joseph Almog

REFERENTIAL MECHANICS

REFERENTIAL MECHANICS
Direct Reference and the Foundations of Semantics
Joseph Almog
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Almog, Joseph.
Referential mechanics : direct reference and the foundations of semantics / Joseph Almog.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-19-931437-9 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Reference (Philosophy) 2. Semantics. I. Title.
B105.R25A46 2014
121'.68—dc23 2013010050
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To David Kaplan and Keith Donnellan

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xxvii
Chapter 1 Direct Reference by Designation 3
Chapter 2 Direct Reference by Singular Proposition 35
Chapter 3 Direct Reference by Referential Uses 61
Chapter 4 Foundational Consequences: The Form
of Semantics 87
Index 135

PREFACE
The story of this book goes back to my first year as a graduate student
in Oxford.1 I was going to see Gareth Evans for weekly tutorials, often
held in a pub. Evans was preparing for an exchange in the early spring
of 1980 on the West Coast of the United States with David Kaplan
and for the subsequent arrival of Kaplan in Oxford as the John Locke
lecturer. I was made to read Kaplan’s “Demonstratives”—an under-
ground samizdat at the time—and report. Evans would acerbically
criticize both my report and the original ideas of Kaplan, as well as
the connected remarks of John Perry, who unbeknownst to Gareth,
was going to replace David in the spring exchange in the center of
advanced research on the hill behind Stanford University, where
Gareth did his best to misbehave. Gareth’s best at anything was not
something minor.
A few weeks later, in the spring of 1980, Kaplan spent six weeks
in Oxford and I had the good fortune of riding with the dragon
himself every day. By the end of this period, I was absolutely certain
1. This is a personal preface. If you can’t take those, go directly to the “intellectual” introduction
in chapter 1. I must confess that the setting up of the “conceptual agenda” and my own three-
decades-long development are interlocked in my mind and laid out in this personal preface.
ix