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A pragmatic defense of Millianism

Båve, Arvid LU orcid (2008) In Philosophical Studies 138(2). p.271-289
Abstract
A new kind of defense of the Millian theory of names is given, which explains intuitive counter-examples as depending on pragmatic effects of the relevant sentences, by direct application of Grice’s and Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory and uncontroversial assumptions. I begin by arguing that synonyms are always intersubstitutable, despite Mates’ considerations, and then apply the method to names. Then, a fairly large sample of cases concerning names are dealt with in related ways. It is argued that the method, as applied to the various cases, satisfies the criterion of success: that for every sentence in context, it is a counter-example to Millianism to the extent that it has pragmatic effects (matching speakers’ intuitions).
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author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Philosophical Studies
volume
138
issue
2
pages
271 - 289
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:38949158767
ISSN
0031-8116
DOI
10.1007/s11098-006-9037-0
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
5527c52c-5471-4851-89aa-6fd94a5ac83e
date added to LUP
2021-11-08 00:34:41
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:54:17
@article{5527c52c-5471-4851-89aa-6fd94a5ac83e,
  abstract     = {{A new kind of defense of the Millian theory of names is given, which explains intuitive counter-examples as depending on pragmatic effects of the relevant sentences, by direct application of Grice’s and Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory and uncontroversial assumptions. I begin by arguing that synonyms are always intersubstitutable, despite Mates’ considerations, and then apply the method to names. Then, a fairly large sample of cases concerning names are dealt with in related ways. It is argued that the method, as applied to the various cases, satisfies the criterion of success: that for every sentence in context, it is a counter-example to Millianism to the extent that it has pragmatic effects (matching speakers’ intuitions).}},
  author       = {{Båve, Arvid}},
  issn         = {{0031-8116}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{271--289}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Philosophical Studies}},
  title        = {{A pragmatic defense of Millianism}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11098-006-9037-0}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s11098-006-9037-0}},
  volume       = {{138}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}