Machery, Edouard and Mallon, Ron and Nichols, Shaun and Stich, Stephen (2004) Semantics, Cross-cultural Style. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Theories of reference have been central to analytic philosophy, and two views, the descriptivist view of reference and the causal-historical view of reference, have dominated the field. In this research tradition, theories of reference are assessed by consulting one’s intuitions about the reference of terms in hypothetical situations. However, recent work in cultural psychology (e.g., Nisbett et al. 2001) has shown systematic cognitive differences between East Asians and Westerners, and some work indicates that this extends to intuitions about philosophical cases (Weinberg et al. 2001). In light of these findings on cultural differences, two experiments were conducted which explored intuitions about reference in Westerners and East Asians. Both experiments indicate that, for certain central cases, Westerners are more likely than East Asians to report intuitions that are consistent with the causal-historical view. These results constitute prima facie evidence that semantic intuitions vary from culture to culture, and the paper argues that this fact raises questions about the nature of the philosophical enterprise of developing a theory of reference.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Machery, Edouard Mallon, Ron Nichols, Shaun Stich, Stephen
Additional Information:	Please quote only the published version
Keywords:	semantic intuitions, proper names, reference, cultural differences, Kripke, descriptivism, causal-historical theory.
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
Depositing User:	Prof. Edouard Machery
Date Deposited:	15 Sep 2004
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2010 15:12
Item ID:	1953
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
Date:	July 2004
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/1953

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