Testing the causal theory of reference

Spencerism and the Causal Theory of Reference

Spencer’s heritage, while almost a forgotten chapter in the history of biology, lives on in psychology and the philosophy of mind. I particularly discuss externalist views of meaning, on which meaning crucially depends on a notion of reference, and ask whether reference should be thought of as cause or effect. Is the meaning of a word explained by what it refers to, or should we say that what w...

the analysis of the role of the speech acts theory in translating and dubbing hollywood films

از محوری ترین اثراتی که یک فیلم سینمایی ایجاد می کند دیالوگ هایی است که هنرپیش گان فیلم میگویند. به زعم یک فیلم ساز, یک شیوه متأثر نمودن مخاطب از اثر منظوره نیروی گفتارهای گوینده, مثل نیروی عاطفی, ترس آور, غم انگیز, هیجان انگیز و غیره, است. این مطالعه به بررسی این مسأله مبادرت کرده است که آیا نیروی فراگفتاری هنرپیش گان به مثابه ی اعمال گفتاری در پنج فیلم هالیوودی در نسخه های دوبله شده باز تولید...

Refining the Causal Theory of Reference for Natural Kind Terms

Kuhn on Essentialism and the Causal Theory of Reference*

The causal theory of reference is often taken to provide a solution to the problems, such as incomparability and referential discontinuity, that the meaning-change thesis raised. I show that Kuhn successfully questioned the causal theory and Putnam’s idea that reference is determined via the sameness relation of essences that holds between a sample and other members of a kind in all possible wo...

Biological Kinds and the Causal Theory of Reference

This paper uses an example from biology, the homology concept, to argue that current versions of the causal theory of reference give an incomplete account of reference determination. It is suggested that in addition to samples and stereotypical properties, the scientific use of concepts and the epistemic interests pursued with concepts are important factors in determining the reference of natur...