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Identifying, reidentifying, and misidentifying

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

Eric Saidel
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, The University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA 70504-3770 [email protected]

Abstract

Millikan (1998a) relies on the ability an organism may have to reidentify external objects. It is difficult to develop an account of how this might occur because the organism could make a mistake in the tokening of a concept; it could misidentify the external object. To sustain her nondescriptivism, Millikan's account of reidentification must make the link between concept and object arbitrary. However, to make mistakes possible, there must be a norm for the production of concepts. These two requirements seem to leave no room for a middle ground.

Type
Continuing Commentary
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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