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Applying the Causal Theory of Reference to Intentional Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John Michael  and
Miles MacLeod
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Abstract

We argue that many recent philosophical discussions about the reference of everyday concepts of intentional states have implicitly been predicated on descriptive theories of reference. To rectify this, we attempt to demonstrate how a causal theory can be applied to intentional concepts. Specifically, we argue that some phenomena in early social development (e.g., mimicry, gaze following, and emotional contagion) can serve as reference fixers that enable children to track others’ intentional states and, thus, to refer to those states. This allows intentional concepts to be anchored to their referents, even if folk psychological descriptions turn out to be false.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 212 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

We would like to thank Ruth Millikan, Brian Epstein, Dan Dennett, Edouard Machery, Joe McCaffrey, two anonymous reviewers, and also audiences at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Vienna for very helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. Miles MacLeod’s participation was supported by the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Austria, and the US National Science Foundation (DRL097394084).

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