Kolejny odczyt w ramach seminarium Znak-Język-Rzeczywistość/SLR Seminar (22 V 2025): Bringing the curtain down on the causal theory of reference: A truly better picture of the semantics of proper names
Kolejny odczyt seminarium ZJR odbędzie się:
Czwartek, 22 maja 2025, 17.00
Jakub Rudnicki
(Uniwesytet w Grenoble)
wygłosi odczyt:
Bringing the curtain down on the causal theory of reference: A truly better picture of the semantics of proper names
Abstrakt:
Since Kripke’s demolition of descript ivism, the causal theory—assembled from hisbrief “better picture” remarks—has become the dominant account of the semantics of proper names and remains so today. I argue that this dominance is unfortunate. I advance three arguments against the theory. First, the chains that play its central explanatory role are often not genuinely causal, which means the theory cannot satisfy basic naturalistic standards; it must either posit action at a distance or invoke referential properties that are not reducible to physical ones. The second argument shows that an appropriate causal connection between a name token and its bearer is not sufficient to establish reference. The third argument—generalizing the point already established by the first—demonstrates that such causation is not even necessary. Throughout the paper I observe that, whenever the causal theory encounters difficulty, it retreats from purely causal considerations and instead appeals to social or conventional facts about name use. This pattern motivates my concluding suggestion: the causal theory should be supplanted by an account on which the reference of proper names is fixed by convention alone. I end the paper with a brief sketch of a truly better convention based picture.
Seminarium odbędzie się online, aby dołączyć do spotkania, prosimy o
skorzystanie z poniższych informacji:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/j/92716044372?pwd=0l7PETAOwqQDBKTMCnheYQN7ag7zx1.1
Meeting ID: 927 1604 4372
Passcode: 697648
Strona seminarium (z orientacyjną listą spotkań):
http://pts.edu.pl/seminarium-2024-2025-seminar-2024-2025.html
Spotkanie otwiera się o 16:45, a wykład rozpoczyna się o 17:00.
Prezentacja będzie nagrywana.
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The next meeting of the Sign-Language-Reality seminar in the academic
year 2024/25 will take place:
Thursday, the 22nd of May 2025, 17.00, Central European Time
Jakub Rudnicki
(University of Grenoble)
will deliver a talk:
Bringing the curtain down on the causal theory of reference: A truly better picture of the semantics of proper names
Abstract:
Since Kripke’s demolition of descript ivism, the causal theory—assembled from hisbrief “better picture” remarks—has become the dominant account of the semantics of proper names and remains so today. I argue that this dominance is unfortunate. I advance three arguments against the theory. First, the chains that play its central explanatory role are often not genuinely causal, which means the theory cannot satisfy basic naturalistic standards; it must either posit action at a distance or invoke referential properties that are not reducible to physical ones. The second argument shows that an appropriate causal connection between a name token and its bearer is not sufficient to establish reference. The third argument—generalizing the point already established by the first—demonstrates that such causation is not even necessary. Throughout the paper I observe that, whenever the causal theory encounters difficulty, it retreats from purely causal considerations and instead appeals to social or conventional facts about name use. This pattern motivates my concluding suggestion: the causal theory should be supplanted by an account on which the reference of proper names is fixed by convention alone. I end the paper with a brief sketch of a truly better convention based picture.
The seminar will be held online, to join the meeting, please use the
information below:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/j/92716044372...
Meeting ID: 927 1604 4372
Passcode: 697648
Seminar website (with a tentative list of meetings):
http://pts.edu.pl/seminarium-2024-2025-seminar-2024-2025...
The meeting opens at 4:45 pm, the talk starts at 5 pm.
The presentation shall be recorded.