Unique Best Deserver Theory and Arguments From Misclassification

Australasian Journal of Philosophy 93 (4):769-781 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

It is a core commitment of Epistemic Two-Dimensionalism that an utterance is 1-necessary iff it is a priori. But Jeff Speaks's Argument from Misclassification proves that, on a natural interpretation, E2D assigns necessary 1-intensions to many utterances that speakers deem a posteriori. Given that 1-intensions are meant to formalize a speaker's own understanding of the words she utters, this proof raises serious difficulties for E2D. In response, Elliott, McQueen, and Weber point out that the Argument from Misclassification presupposes a controversial theory of reference-fixation for proper names and argue that E2Dists ought to reject this theory. They discuss three alternatives to the theory that render E2D immune to the Argument from Misclassification. I demonstrate here that each of these alternatives either replicates the faults of the original theory by assigning necessary 1-intensions to a posteriori utterances, or makes 1-intensions creatures of darkness. I argue that, although the A..

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,197

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-02-11

Downloads
108 (#164,051)

6 months
11 (#243,798)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Richard P. Stillman
University of Chicago

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Considering empty worlds as actual.Laura Schroeter - 2005 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 83 (3):331-347.
Epistemic two-dimensionalism and the epistemic argument.Jeff Speaks - 2010 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88 (1):59 – 78.
Epistemic Two-Dimensionalism and the Epistemic Argument.Jeff Speaks - 2010 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88 (1):59-78.
Epistemic Two-Dimensionalism and Empirical Presuppositions.Laura Schroeter - 2013 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (2):391-394.

View all 6 references / Add more references