Abstract

The following paper explores a notion of particulars that permeates recent and less recent literature in philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. This notion of particulars relates to a distinction between conceptual and non-conceptual thought content. In the literature, this relation is discussed in terms of a distinction between thought of particulars and general thought . I focus on this distinction as it relates to two different interpretations of Fregean sense: one that treats sense as descriptive and the other that recognizes that sense is not descriptive. I argue that the descriptive interpretation of Frege leads one to postulate non-conceptual content, a position which I further argue is untenable. I ultimately propose and argue that the non-descriptive interpretation of sense avoids a dilemma between a near-idealist view that leaves no room for particulars, and a realist view that leaves us with an odd notion of non-conceptual mental content