Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:34:25.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Re-reading Anscombe on ‘I’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Robert J. Stainton
Robert J. Stainton*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

According to a ‘Straight’ reading of Elizabeth Anscombe’s (1975) ‘The First Person’, she holds a radically non-referring view of ‘I’. Specifically, ‘I’ is analogous to the expletive ‘it’ in ‘It’s raining’. I argue that this is not her conclusion. Her substantive view, rather is that if what you mean by ‘reference’ is a certain rich and recherché notion tracing to Frege, then ‘I’ is not a referring term. Her methodological point is that one shouldn’t be ‘bewitched by language’ into thinking that ‘I’, because of its syntax, must exhibit ‘reference’ in this sense.

Keywords

G.E.M. Anscombefirst person pronoun‘I’indirect reflexivespersonsradical non-referring‘The First Person’
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 70 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

A first draft of this paper was presented at the Department of Philosophy, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile, 24 May 2017. A revised version was given at the Annual Conference on Philosophy and Linguistics, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 5 September 2017; to the School of Philosophy, Australian National University, 2 November 2017; to the Department of Philosophy, University of Reading, 19 January 2018; and to the Arché Mind and Language Seminar, University of St. Andrews, 3 April 2018. I am grateful to audience members at these venues for very helpful feedback. Thanks also to Andrew Botterell, Brian Garrett, Jennifer Hornsby, Léa Salje, Kranti Saran and Barry Smith for very pleasant mealtime discussions of Anscombe’s views, and to Lenny Clapp, Michael Hymers, Rick Grush, Angela Mendelovici, Eliot Michaelson, Martin Montminy and the anonymous referees for insightful written comments. Financial support was provided by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by a Visiting Fellowship from the Research School of Science Sciences at the Australian National University. The paper is dedicated to my dear friends Lorne Falkenstein and John Thorp on the happy/sad occasion of their retirement from The University of Western Ontario.

References

Anscombe, E., 1975. “The First Person.” In her Mind and Language, edited by Guttenplan, S., 45–65. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Anscombe, E., 1976. “The Subjectivity of Sensation”. Ajatus 36: 3-18. Reprinted in her (1981)Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Mind: Collected Philosophical Papers, Volume II, 44–56. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Botterell, A., and Stainton, R. J.. Forthcoming. “An Anscombean Reference for ‘I’?” Croatian Journal of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Castañeda, H.-N., 1967. “On the Logic of Self-Knowledge.” Nous, 1: 9–22. doi:10.2307/2214709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, D. S. Jr., 1978. “The Addressing Function of ‘I’.” Analysis, 38 (2): 91–93. doi:10.1093/analys/38.2.91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, J., 2018. No Morality, No Self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dummett, M., 1973. Frege: Philosophy of Language. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Evans, G., 1982. Varieties of Reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Garrett, B. J., 1994. “Anscombe and the First Person.” Crítica, 26 (78): 97–113.Google Scholar
Garrett, B. J., 1997. “Anscombe on ‘I’.” Philosophical Quarterly, 47 (189): 507–511. doi:10.1111/phiq.1997.47.issue-189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geach, P., 1957. Mental Acts. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Geach, P., 1962. Reference and Generality. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Geach, P., 1969. God and the Soul. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Geach, P., 1986. “Review of Varieties of Reference.” Philosophy, 61: 534–540. doi:10.1017/S0031819100061313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, A., 1991. “Anscombean and Cartesian Scepticism.” The Philosophical Quarterly, 41 (162): 39–54. doi:10.2307/2219785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harcourt, E., 2000. “The First Person: Problems of Sense and Reference.” In Logic, Cause and Action, edited by Teichmann, R., 25–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hinton, E., 2008. “Anscombe’s First Person.” Prometheus Journal. http://prometheus-journal.com/2008/12/23/anscombe%E2%80%99s-first-person/.Google Scholar
Kaplan, D., 1989. “Demonstratives.” In Themes from Kaplan, edited by Almog, J., Perry, J., and Wettstein, H., 481–563. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kripke, S., 2011. “The First Person.” In his Philosophical Troubles, 292–321. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, G. E., 1954. “Wittgenstein’s Lectures in 1930-33.” Mind, 63 (251): 289–316. doi:10.1093/mind/LXIII.251.289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Brien, L., 1994. “Anscombe and the Self-Reference Rule.” Analysis, 54 (4): 277–281. doi:10.1093/analys/54.4.277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peacocke, C., 2008. Truly Understood. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumfitt, I., 1994. “Frege’s Theory of Predication.” The Philosophical Review, 103 (4): 599–637. doi:10.2307/2186099.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strawson, P. F., 1950. “On Referring.” Mind, 59 (235): 320–344. doi:10.1093/mind/LIX.235.320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strawson, P. F., 1953. “Particular and General.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 54: 233–260. doi:10.1093/aristotelian/54.1.233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taschek, W., 1985. “Referring to Oneself.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 15 (4): 629–652. doi:10.1080/00455091.1985.10715881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teichmann, R., 2008. The Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Inwagen, P., 2001. “‘I Am Elizabeth Anscombe’ Is Not an Identity Proposition.” Metaphysica, 2 (1): 5–8.Google Scholar
White, M. J., 1979. “The First Person Pronoun: A Reply to Anscombe and Clarke.” Analysis, 39 (3): 120–123. doi:10.1093/analys/39.3.120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiseman, R., 2017. “What Am I and What Am I Doing?” Journal of Philosophy, 114 (10): 536–550. doi:10.5840/jphil20171141037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, L., 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L., 1958. The Blue and Brown Books. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar