Causal Theories
RECAP
Kripke’s Picture
“Someone, let’s say, a baby, is born; his parents
call him by a certain name. They talk about him
to their friends, other people meet him.
Through various sorts of talk the name is spread
from link to link as if by a chain…”
Kripke’s Picture
“A speaker who is on the far end of this chain,
who has heard about, say Richard Feynman, in
the market place or elsewhere, may be referring
to Richard Feynman even though he can’t
remember from whom he first heard of
Feynman or from whom he ever heard of
Feynman.”
Kripke’s Picture
“A rough statement of a theory might be the
following: An initial ‘baptism’ takes place. Here
the object may be named by ostension, or the
reference of the name may be fixed by a
description…”
Kripke’s Picture
“When the name is ‘passed from link to link’, the
receiver of the name must, I think, intend when
he learns it to use it with the same reference as
the man from whom he heard it.”
The Causal-Historical Theory
Let’s call that
baby ‘Feynman’
Feynman
Feynman
Feynman
Feynman
The Causal-Historical Theory
Let’s call that
baby ‘Feynman’
Feynman
Feynman
Feynman
Historical Chain of Transmission
Feynman
The Causal-Historical Theory
Feynman
Feynman
Feynman
Feynman
Denotation
No Connotations
The causal-historical theory, unlike the other
theories we’ve considered so far, does not use a
connotation (idea, experience, definition) to
determine the denotation.
Denotations are determined by non-mental
facts.
Natural Kinds
Kripke and another
philosopher Hilary
Putnam wanted to
generalize what was true
of names to “natural kind
terms” (a phrase
introduced by Quine).
The Causal-Historical Theory
Let’s call that
thing a “tiger.”
TIGER
TIGER
TIGER
TIGER
THE EPISTEMIC AND MODAL
ARGUMENTS
Definitional Truths
We know “definitional” truths simply by
knowing the meanings of the words.
We know them with certainty.
Example
“Boars are male” is a
definitional truth. “boar”
just means male pig.
Anyone who knows what
“boar” means knows that
“boars are male” is true.
Descriptivism
The descriptivist position
that Kripke argued against
held that the meaning of a
name was a definition.
Descriptivism
So, for example,
“Aristotle” might mean
“the last great philosopher
of antiquity.”
The Epistemic Argument
However, it still seems as though you don’t have
the same sort of epistemic access to “Aristotle
was a philosopher” as to other clearer cases of
definitional truths like “boars are male.”
The Epistemic Argument
You don’t know for sure that Aristotle was the a
philosopher. It could turn out false.
Maybe Aristotle was a farmer and philosophical
writings were falsely attributed to him.
Maybe Aristotle’s writings were medieval
forgeries.
The Epistemic Argument
Premise 1: If “Aristotle” means the last great
philosopher of antiquity, then anyone who
knows what “Aristotle” means should know with
certainty that Aristotle was the last great
philosopher of antiquity.
Premise 2: We don’t know with certainty that
Aristotle was the last great philosopher of
antiquity.
The Epistemic Argument
Conclusion: “Aristotle” does not mean the last
great philosopher of antiquity.
Similar reasoning works for any proposed
definition of “Aristotle.”
The Modal Argument
Premise 1: If “Aristotle” means the last great
philosopher of antiquity, then any true sentence
containing the word “Aristotle” will still be true
if you replace “Aristotle” with “the last great
philosopher of antiquity.”
Modal Properties
Some things could not possibly have gone
differently. These things are necessary.
Some things did not happen, but could have.
These things are merely possible.
The Modal Argument
FALSE: If things had gone differently, Aristotle
might not have been Aristotle.
TRUE: If things had gone differently, Aristotle
might not have been the last great philosopher
of antiquity.
The Modal Argument
Conclusion: “Aristotle” does not mean the last
great philosopher of antiquity.
Similar reasoning works for any proposed
definition of “Aristotle.”
CHALLENGES
Huge Literature
There’s been an enormous literature on Kripke
and Putnam (and I should mention Donnellan). I
can’t explain all of the objections, but I’ll
mention a few classic ones, and a recent
challenge from Machery, Mallon, Nichols &
Stich.
The Story of Madagascar
Let’s call that
place ‘Mogadishu’
Madagishu
Madagascu
Madagasceir
Madagascar
C.H. Theory Predicts
Let’s call that
place ‘Mogadishu’
Madagishu
Madagascu
Madagasceir
Madagascar
Denotation
C.H. Theory Predicts
Let’s call that
place ‘Mogadishu’
Madagishu
Madagascu
Madagasceir
Madagascar
Denotation
Wrong!!!
Real Denotation
Let’s call that
place ‘Mogadishu’
Madagishu
Madagascu
Madagasceir
Madagascar
Denotation
Madagascar
The “Madagascar” case illustrates a general
point: the Causal-Historical Theory cannot
account for unintentional meaning change.
Gareth
Saul
Saul
Gareth
Twins Switched at Birth
Now imagine it’s 73 years
later and we’ve been
calling one man “Saul” for
72.99 years, even though
(unknown to us) he was
baptized “Gareth.”
Saul
Twins Switched at Birth
TRUE or FALSE: Saul is
wearing a hat.
Saul
The Causal-Historical Theory
Let’s call that
stuff “jade.”
JADE
JADE
JADE
JADE
Jade
There are two distinct minerals called ‘jade’:
jadeite and nephrite, but this wasn’t discovered
until 1863 by Alexis Damour.
Since jade is not a natural kind, the CausalHistorical Theory predicts that there is nothing
that “jade” means.
Machery, Mallon, Nichols & Stich
In their highly influential 2004 paper
“Semantics, Cross-Cultural Style,” MMNS claim
to uncover evidence that while Westerners have
intuitions that accord with Kripke and Putnam
(that is for causal-historical theories and against
descriptivism), East Asians have (on average)
more descriptivist intuitions. For example, they
think in the Twin Earth case, XYZ is water.
According to MMNS!
MMNS
I am personally weary of the methodology, and I
find it a little bit silly to think that anyone, East
Asian or not, thinks that Americans who only
believe about Neil Armstrong that he was the
first man in space, speak truly when they say
“Neil Armstrong was the first man in space.”
[Descriptivist says TRUE because Yuri Gagarin
satisfies description, hence “Neal Armstrong”
means Yuri Gagarin, and it’s true that Yuri
Gagarin was the first man in space!]
MMNS
Still, this is another important reminder that the
subjects of philosophy discussion cannot always
be resolved by philosophers (at least,
philosophers who don’t have labs and test
subjects). Sometimes philosophical questions
are empirical, and can’t be solved solely through
debate.