Paper Info
Title
Evans’ Varieties of Reference and the anchoring problem
Abstract
To think about how,to anchor abstract symbols,to objects in the world is to become,part of a tradition in philosophy with a long history, and an especially rich recent past. It is to ask, with Wittgenstein, “What makes my thought about him, a thought about him?” and thus it is to wonder,not just about the nature of referring expressions or singular terms, but about the nature of referring beings. With this in mind I hereby endeavor—briefly, incompletely, but hopefully still usefully—to introduce what in my,judgment,is the single best philosophical starting-point for those interested in understanding,the referential connections between symbols and the world, and the cognitive, epistemic, and linguistic capacities which support them: The Varieties of Referenceby Gareth Evans., It is worthwhile first of all to note, as the title indicates, that it is the varieties of reference that are of interest. It is Evans’ contention that no single theory can account for our various use of singular terms; although the different kinds of reference share certain features, and rely on related cognitive, linguistic and epistemic capacities, it appears that, rather than being a class defined by necessary and sufficient criteria for membership, they form a family of abilities, united, like a thread, by its overlapping fibers. Evans does not defend this claim so much,as display it in his account. Much of the underlying variety in reference can be brought out by considering the guiding principle of the work as a whole, which Evans E-mail address: mikeoda@cs.umd.edu (M.L. Anderson).
Year
DOI
Venue
2003
10.1016/S0921-8890(03)00022-8
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
cognitive linguistics
Wonder,Expression (mathematics),Computer science,Anchoring,Cognitive science,Cognition
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
43
2
0921-8890
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Michael L. Anderson125424.18