The meaning and reference of natural kind terms

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The meaning and reference of natural kind terms

• Joanna Odrowaz-Sypniewska
• Warsaw University
• j.odrowaz_at_uw.edu.pl

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(No Transcript)
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Descriptivism

• NKT have denotation and connotation
• connotation univocally determines denotation
• connotation of a term T is a set of necessary
  and sufficient conditions for being T

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• A tiger is a large carnivorous quadrupedal
  feline, tawny yellow in color with blackish
  transverse stripes and white belly

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Kripkes arguments against descriptivism
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• Modal (unwanted necessity) A tiger is a large
  quadrupedal feline that is tawny yellow in color
  with blackish transverse stripes and white belly
  is not necessary
• Epistemological (ignorance and error) A tiger
  is a LCQFtiTYiCwBTSaWB is not a priori
• for a name to designate an object it is neither
  necessary nor sufficient for the speaker to
  associate with the name identifying descriptions
• Semantic (lost rigidity) Tigers attack people
  vs. LCQFtaTYiCwBTSaWB attack people

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Kripke was right but he chose wrong properties

• Causal descriptivism
• the referent of the relevant name used by the
  person from whom I acquired the antecedent of my
  current term N
• the individual referred to by the uses of the
  name N from which I acquired the use of N
• Rigidified descriptivism
• the actual last great philosopher of antiquity
• the actual LQFtiTYiCwTSaWB

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Kripke was right so descriptivism has to go

• NKT are nondescriptive expressions in a sense
  that their reference is not fixed by their
  meaning (connotation)

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The causal theory of reference fixing for NKT
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• Putnam was wrong about the meaning of NKT, but he
  was more or less right about their reference

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Putnams meaning

• (1) syntactic markers (mass noun, concrete)
• (2) semantic markers (natural kind, liquid)
• (3) stereotype (colorless, transparent,
  tasteless, thirst-quenching, etc.)
• (4) extension (H2O (give or take impurities))

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motley collection

• linguistic and meta-linguistic
• connotation and denotation
• requires sophisticated meta-liguistic knowledge

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Putnams reference

• x bears the relation sameL to y just in case
  (1) x and y are both liquids, and (2) x and y
  agree in important physical properties
• importance is an interest-relative notion
• normally the important properties (...) are
  the ones that are structurally important
• Putnam, The meaning of meaning

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Important insights

• Social dimension
• Hypothesis of the division of linguistic labour
• Every linguistic community (...) possesses at
  least some terms whose associated criteria are
  known only to a subset of the speakers who
  acquire the terms, and whose use by the other
  speakers depends upon a structured cooperation
  between them and the speakers in relevant
  subsets
• Putnam, The meaning of meaning
• The contribution of the external world

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Dummetts social descriptivism
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Michael Dummett

• (...) the sharpest distinction ought to be made
  between an acknowledgement of the social
  character of language and Kripkes causal theory
• Meaning
• The meaning of the word gold, as a word of the
  English language, is fully conveyed neither by a
  description of the criteria employed by the
  experts nor by a description of those used by
  ordinary speakers it involves both, and a grasp
  of the relationship between them
• Dummett, The social character of meaning

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The meaning and reference of NKT

• Meaning (gold)
• (i) identifying criteria (being yellow, being
  valuable, being the material the wedding rings
  are most commonly made of, etc.)
• (ii) criteria for being a designatum (being the
  element with the atomic number 79)
• (iii) the relation of subordination of (i) to
  (ii)

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• competent speakers have to know (i) and know that
  (iii)
• (ii) may not be known even by experts
• (ii) may not be finally settled

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• NKT are nondescriptive in a sense that
• their reference originally was determined
  causally (by ostension and induction)
• their meaning comes after their reference