"Singular Thought and the Use of Proper Names"

ORLANDO, ELEONORA

Buenos Aires

Workshop; Worshop on Mental Files and Singular Reference (ICSO II); 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Filosófico

Singular thoughts, in the sense of thoughts with a singular content, are constituted by mental files anchored in particular objects in the world by means of epistemically rewarding relations. The link between the mental file and the corresponding individual, which both originates and preserves it, includes not only the cases of perception, memory and testimony but also historical chains of communication underlying the use of proper names. There seems to be a tension between the two following claims: (i) having a singular thought requires bearing an epistemically rewarding relation with an object, which is generally characterized in terms of acquaintance; (ii) historical chains of communication allow for singular thought, namely, provide for a kind of epistemically rewarding relation or acquaintance. The upshot will be that we either impose an acquaintance constraint on mental file theory, at the price of giving up historical chains as one of the sources for singular thought, or we take historical chains to be a source of singular thought but give up imposing a general acquaintance constraint. I further suggest a reason based on cognitive architecture for preferring the latter option to the former one.