Kaplan's 'dthat' operator and his own formal system demonstrate that context alone can fix reference for all directly referential terms without invoking a separate circumstance parameter.

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Reasons For

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Reason for

1.The dthat operator successfully demonstrates that a single contextual assignment can determine reference without invoking possible worlds or circumstance parameters.
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2.Direct reference theories require only context-dependent content, not circumstance-dependent truth conditions, making extra parameters metaphysically unnecessary.
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3.Kaplan's formal system treats character (context-to-content mapping) as sufficient for all linguistic reference, avoiding redundant modal machinery.
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Reasons Against

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Reason against

1.Even dthat-rigidified terms require evaluation across possible worlds to determine truth values, requiring circumstance parameters Kaplan claims to eliminate.
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2.Context fixes *which object* is referenced, but determining whether 'dthat(x) exists' is true requires evaluating that object's existence in different circumstances.
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3.Kaplan conflates reference-fixing with truth-evaluation; context alone handles the former, but the latter necessarily invokes circumstance parameters.
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Key Terms

'dthat' operator(as a technical tool for understanding reference): A logical symbol Kaplan invented to represent how certain words point directly to things in the world based on the context in which they're used, without needing extra explanation.
Circumstance parameter(as something Kaplan's system supposedly doesn't need): In logic, an extra factor philosophers sometimes use to explain how the same sentence can be true in one situation but false in another (like 'it's raining' being true in one place but false elsewhere).
Directly referential terms(as the main topic of the statement): Words that point straight to a specific thing based on the situation they're used in—like 'I' (points to whoever is speaking) or 'now' (points to when it's being said).
Fix reference(as the main action being described): To determine or establish what a word is actually pointing to or talking about.
Formal system(as used in logic and mathematics): A set of rules and symbols (like mathematical axioms) that you use to prove whether statements are true or false, similar to how a chess game has specific rules that determine what moves are legal.
Kaplan(the statement refers to his specific argument): David Kaplan is a philosopher who studied how words like 'I,' 'here,' and 'now' work—words whose meaning depends on who's speaking and when they're speaking.
context(Used in the Kaplanian framework to distinguish the circumstance of utterance from the content expressed): A situation of utterance that supplies parameters (such as the speaker) used to determine the content of context-sensitive expressions.

Connections

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Philosophy of Language1 linked

Context fixes *which object* is referenced, but determining whether 'dthat(x) ex...Direct reference theories require only context-dependent content, not circumstan...Even dthat-rigidified terms require evaluation across possible worlds to determi...Kaplan conflates reference-fixing with truth-evaluation; context alone handles t...

Details

Type: claim
Perspectives: 2 (1 for, 1 against)
Edits: 1 edit