3. “I”-Ascriptions: The Semantic and the Epistemic

Author: Bar-On, Dorit

Source: Speaking My Mind, November 2004 , pp. 55-93(39)

Publisher: Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs

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Abstract:

A more promising account of the way ‘I’ refers, which derives from the works of Sidney Shoemaker and Gareth Evans, is discussed in Ch. 3. This account, the ’Reference without Identification’ view, preserves Semantic Continuity while explaining various epistemic asymmetries between avowals and other ascriptions. The observation is that uses of ‘I’ are immune to error through misidentifying the referent, and it is so because no identification of the referent is needed when ‘I’ is used. In connection with this view, the author also critiques the alternative explanations of immunity to error through misidentification given by Shoemaker and Evans.

Keywords: identification of the referent; reference; uses of; ‘I’; immunity to error through misidentification

Document Type: Research article

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