Description
Book SynopsisNew Essays on Singular Thought presents ten new, specially written essays on an issue central to philosophy of mind, language, and perception: the nature of our thought about the external world. Is our thought about objects in the world always descriptive, mediated by our conceptions of those objects? Or is some of our thought somehow more direct, singular, associated more intimately with our perceptual, linguistic, and socially mediated relations to them? Leading experts in the field contributing to this volume make the case for the singularity of thought and debate a broad spectrum of issues it raises, including the structure of singular thought, the role of acquaintance in perception- and communication-based reference, the semantics of fictional and mythical terms, and the merits of epistemic, cognitive, and linguistic conditions on singular thought. Their essays explore new directions for future research and will be an important resource for anyone working at the interface of seman
Trade Reviewthe editor deserves thanks for drawing together these thought-provoking papers and making it easier to see some of the profitable areas for future work on singular thought. * Jose Luis Bermudez, The Philosophical Quarterly *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; I THE STRUCTURE OF SINGULAR THOUGHT ; 1. Getting a Thing Into a Thought ; 2. Three Perspectives on Quantifying In ; 3. On Singularity ; II CONDITIONS ON SINGULAR THOUGHT ; 4. Singular Thought: Acquaintance, Semantic Instrumentalism, and Cognitivism ; 5. Singular Thought: In Defense of Acquaintance ; DEMONSTRATIVE AND COMMUNICATION-BASED REFERENCE AND THOUGHT ; 6. Demonstrative Reference, the Relational View of Experience, and the Proximality Principle ; 7. We Are Acquainted With Ordinary Things ; 8. Millian Externalism ; IV THINKING OF NOTHING ; 9. Fictional Singular Imaginings ; 10. Intentionality Without Exotica ; Index
