European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 6 (2):47 - 66 (2010)
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In this paper I offer a defence of a Russellian analysis of the referential uses of incomplete (mis)descriptions, in a contextual setting. With regard to the debate between a unificationist and an ambiguity approach to the formal treatment of definite descriptions (introduction), I will support the former against the latter. In 1. I explain what I mean by "essentially" incomplete descriptions: incomplete descriptions are context dependent descriptions. In 2. I examine one of the best versions of the unificationist “explicit” approach given by Buchanan and Ostertag. I then show that this proposal seems unable to treat the normal uses of misdescriptions. I then accept the challenge of treating misdescriptions as a key to solving the problem of context dependent descriptions. In 3. I briefly discuss Michael Devitt’s and Joseph Almog’s treatments of referential descriptions, showing that they find it difficult to explain misdescriptions. In 4. I suggest an alternative approach to DD as contextuals, under a normative epistemic stance. Definite descriptions express (i) what a speaker should have in mind in using certain words in a certain context and (ii) what a normal speaker is justified in saying in a context, given a common basic knowledge of the lexicon. In 5. I define a procedure running on contextual parameters (partiality, perspective and approximation) as a means of representing the role of pragmatics as a filter for semantic interpretation. In 6. I defend my procedural approach against possible objections concerning the problem of the boundaries between semantics and pragmatics, relying on the distinction between semantics and theory of meaning
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Keywords | Definite Descriptions Contextual Reasoning Stephen Neale Michael Devitt Joseph Almog Bertrand Russell John McCarthy |
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References found in this work BETA
Reference and Definite Descriptions.Keith S. Donnellan - 1966 - Philosophical Review 75 (3):281-304.
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Citations of this work BETA
Donnellan's Misdescriptions and Loose Talk.Carlo Penco - 2017 - In Kepa Korta Maria De Ponte (ed.), Reference and Representation in Language and Thought. Oxford (UK): Oxford University Press. pp. 104-125.
Pragmatic Ambiguity and Kripke’s Dialogue Against Donnellan.Carlo Penco - 2019 - Ágora Filosófica 19 (1):103-134.
Updating the Turing Test. Wittgenstein, Turing and Symbol Manipulation.Carlo Penco - 2012 - Open Journal of Philosophy 2 (3):189-194.
Updating the Turing Test Wittgenstein, Turing and Symbol Manipulation.Penco Carlo - 2012 - Open Journal of Philosophy 2 (3):189.
Contexts in Philosophy: Pragmatic Competence as Filter.Carlo Penco - 2018 - Modeling and Using Context 2 (1):1-19.
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