A problem about reference Cover Image

Problem s referencijom
A problem about reference

Author(s): Hilary Putnam
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Akademija Nauka i Umjetnosti Bosne i Hercegovine

Summary/Abstract: What makes the question of reference so distressing is that operational plus theoretical constrains are the natural way in which to allow the actual empirical context to determine the admissible interpretation (or interpretations) of one’s representational system. Such constrains can to some extent determine which sentences in one’s language are true and which false. Still, it is the slack between truth-conditions and reference that remains. Kripke’s view that “water is H20” is true in all possible worlds, could be right even if reference in the actual world is fi xed only by operational and theoretical constrains. This view presupposes the notion of reference, it does not tell us whether reference is determinate or what reference is. The metaphysically singled-out ‘real’ relation of reference may allow for a plurality of admissible interpretations. Infi nitely many metaphysical theories are compatible with the same sentences being true, the same ‘theory of the world’, and the same optimal methodology for discovering what is true.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 03
  • Page Range: 44-66
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Bosnian