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    The indirect reflexive pronoun 'himself' cannot be used t... — Carmelics
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    The indirect reflexive pronoun 'himself' cannot be used to explain the word 'I', because 'himself' derives its distinctive sense from 'I'

    Philosophy of LanguageTruth & Knowledge
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Frege's distinction between sense and reference shows that co-referential terms can differ in cognitive significance, so 'himself' and 'I' cannot be intersubstitutable without loss.
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    • 2.The immunity to error through misidentification that Shoemaker attributes to 'I' is absent in third-person reflexive constructions like 'himself', revealing a structural asymmetry.
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    • 3.If 'himself' could explain 'I' without circularity, a speaker could understand 'himself' without first grasping the first-person perspective, but no account of reflexive pronouns succeeds without presupposing a subject of use.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Wittgenstein's distinction in the Blue Book between the use of 'I' as subject versus object shows 'I' has a logically primitive grammatical role that cannot be derived from third-person reflexives.
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    • 2.Third-person reflexives like 'himself' are anaphoric expressions that acquire their reference by depending on an antecedent noun phrase, whereas 'I' requires no antecedent and is semantically self-standing.
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    • 3.Any attempt to define a semantically self-standing expression by means of an anaphoric one reverses the correct order of semantic explanation and is therefore circular.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The sentence 'The word I is a word each of us uses in speaking of himself' uses 'himself' in a non-ordinary reflexive sense
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    • 2.This non-ordinary sense of 'himself' gets its distinctive meaning from the word 'I'
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    • 3.An expression cannot be used to explain another expression when the first expression's meaning depends on the second
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    Related

    An expression cannot be used to explain another expression when the first expres...Any attempt to define a semantically self-standing expression by means of an ana...Frege's distinction between sense and reference shows that co-referential terms ...If 'himself' could explain 'I' without circularity, a speaker could understand '...
    +5 moreShow less
    The immunity to error through misidentification that Shoemaker attributes to 'I'...The sentence 'The word I is a word each of us uses in speaking of himself' uses ...Third-person reflexives like 'himself' are anaphoric expressions that acquire th...This non-ordinary sense of 'himself' gets its distinctive meaning from the word ...Wittgenstein's distinction in the Blue Book between the use of 'I' as subject ve...

    Similar

    The word 'himself' in that explanation derives its sense from the word...91%This non-ordinary sense of 'himself' gets its distinctive meaning from...88%The sentence 'The word I is a word each of us uses in speaking of hims...84%The subject 'I' refers to the self79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: anscombe
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    Things are different if we are tempted to say “The word ‘I’ is a word each of us uses in speaking of himself.” This use of ‘himself’ can’t be the ordinary reflexive, because, as we just saw, a person can speak of himself in cases where he wouldn’t also use the word ‘I’ to refer to the same thing. The word ‘himself’ in this newer attempt at explaining the word ‘I’ gets its distinctive sense from that of the word ‘I’. But since the sense of the indirect reflexive pronoun ‘himself’ depends upon tha
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit