[lit-ideas] The Causal View of Names -- Gricean
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2013 13:06:33 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 9/1/2013 7:44:56 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Simply asserting, that, say, ‘we can explain the name-object correlation
as the merely physical correlation of two physical systems’, cannot be
regarded as an adequate counter-argument to Popper’s paper. What we need is
for
someone to specify an explanation that works (for all the infinite physical
variety) in merely physical terms.
So what is that explanation?
I think it's called the Causal Theory of Names -- Gricean.
There is an edited book on this.
The locus classicus is of course Grice's "Causal Theory of Perception"
(CTP, for short).
Dretske was a strong proponent of this.
The idea is to distinguish between the 'cause' of using a name and its
reason.
Stampe, Patton, and many others -- Kripke, etc. -- have proposed Causal
accounts alla Grice. And they work. Loar, too.
A BIG reference list could be compiled.
They are ALL compatible with infinite realisations, as McEvoy's reference
above goes.
Most of the causal theories assume a 'factive' approach to representation.
If McEvoy SEES the coast of Dover as having white cliffs then the coast of
Dover HAS white cliffs.
If McEvoy knows that "Dover" refers to Dover, that's because we can build a
causal trace between the baptismal act back in Anglo-Saxon days to the
'mental' representation (reducible in principle to physicalist terms) of
McEvoy's thinking (and speaking) about Dover. And so on.
Note that, for most, 'information' is causal in this sense: Donal McEvoy
cannot inform us that "Dover" refers to or names Dover unless it does.
Cheers,
Speranza
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