Zarębski, Tomasz and Kublikowski, Robert (2021) Deixis, Reference and Inference. Are Putnam and Brandom in Contention or Agreement? European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, 13 (2). pp. 1-14. ISSN 2036-4091
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
ejpap-2530.pdf Download (302kB) |
Abstract
The article raises the issue of the relationship between Hilary Putnam’s externalist semantics, with a focus on the concepts of deixis and deictic (ostensive) definition, and Robert B. Brandom’s semantic inferentialism, with a focus on the concepts of observational, noninferential reports and of anaphoric reference and their roles in a broader inferential practice. The analysis of the two respective conceptions shows that despite the differences in philosophical background and terminology, Putnam’s and Brandom’s considerations largely overlap as to their views on reference and ostensive definition, especially in the context of introducing a novel term into a language by a scientist. Either philosopher agrees, first, that the bare act of indicating does not play any semantically constitutive role unless it has some conceptual load and it is used in a sentence, at least such as “This is X”; second, in their accepting semantic holism; third, in their admitting the social aspect of meaning-formation, along with their approving that the constituting of meaning of perceptual, observational terms proceeds in close contact of the language with reality.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||
| Keywords: | Deixis Putnam Brandom inferentialism definitions natural-kind terms | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Natural Kinds General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory/Observation General Issues > Thought Experiments |
|||||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Tomasz Zarębski | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 16 Oct 2025 14:00 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 16 Oct 2025 14:00 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 26939 | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy | |||||||||
| Official URL: | http://journals.openedition.org/ejpap/2530 | |||||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.2530 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Natural Kinds General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory/Observation General Issues > Thought Experiments |
|||||||||
| Date: | 20 December 2021 | |||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1-14 | |||||||||
| Volume: | 13 | |||||||||
| Number: | 2 | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 2036-4091 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/26939 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Altmetric.com
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}