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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The medieval distinction between particular and descriptive sense conflates the semantic role of a name with the psychological associations speakers contingently attach to it.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Medieval theorists distinguished sense from psychological association; descriptive sense isn't mere contingent belief.
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    • 2.Even direct reference theories require some identifying condition; purely semantic distinctions don't eliminate speaker competence.
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    • 3.The claim conflates how names work semantically with epistemological questions about how speakers know what names refer to.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.A name's semantic content must be stable across speakers with different beliefs, else communication becomes impossible.
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    • 2.Medieval theories treating descriptive content as essential to names makes reference dependent on contingent psychological states.
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    • 3.Proper names function to pick out objects directly, not through accumulated speaker associations that vary individually.
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