Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Reference, philosophy: reference means a) the relation between an expression and one or more objects, thus the reference or b) the object (reference object) itself. Terminological confusion arises easily because the author, to whom this term ultimately goes back - G. Frege - spoke of meaning (in the sense of "pointing at something"). Reference is therefore often referred to as Fregean meaning in contrast to the Fregean sense, which describes what we call meaning today. See also meaning, sense, intension, extension. _____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Colin Allen on Reference - Dictionary of Arguments
Perler/Wild I 334 Reference/Language/Allen: Thesis: Reference is older than other peculiarities of language. Colin Allen und Eric Saidel Die Evolution der Referenz in D. Perler/M. Wild (Hg.) Der Geist der Tiere, Frankfurt 2005 Perler I 334 Reference/Language/Allen: Thesis: Reference is older than other language peculiarities. --- I 336 Reference/Animal/Language/Allen/Saidel: the representatives of the separation of humans and animals want to show that the alleged reference of animal signals are evaluated by criteria which are not applicable to the referential use of the human language. And precisely a criterion that even the homo javaniensis would fulfill: but that again is not fulfilled by modern human languages: stimulus specificity! N.B.: animal reference is to be confirmed by presence of the speaker, while for the human reference the absence is characteristic! --- I 337 I 338 If an implicit definition is necessary in language learning, does ontogenesis then repeat phylogenesis? Do animals have a block world language (Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, PU)? And would that be a first step in the development of human language? --- I 339 Animal/Species/Reference/Allen/Saidel: E.g. Seyfarth, warning calls from long-tailed monkeys offspring must be confirmed (repeated) by adults so that they are taken seriously by others. --- I 341 Reference/Language/Animal/Allen/Saidel: to what extent can the reference be extended to absent objects? Three types: 1. mimetical reference: the signal looks very similar to the referent. Dawkins/cancer: essential part in animals: --- I 342 Try to use the muscle strength of others for your own goals. --- I 343 2. Substitutive reference: Signals act as substitutes for their referents. They trigger the same reaction as this, but with a different cognitive mechanism. Numerous in birds and mammals. Reference to absent things. --- I 344 This also works even if it is limited to a block world language. 3. Conceptual reference: occurs when signals can refer to external conditions without normally triggering reactions that the referents themselves would trigger. E.g. the description of a beautiful sunset is not informative, but presents the speaker as a romantic. --- I 345 Substitutive and conceptual reference require the ability to make an arbitrary connection. It is often not ecologically advisable to wire such a connection firmly. --- I 345 Reference/Allen/Saidel: Thesis: Reference to behavior is both phylogenetic and ontogenetically more fundamental than reference to objects. --- I 346 Movements are already observed by small children more attentively than static things. --- I 347 E.g. long-tailed monkey: here is a warning call "grunting of an animal, which goes on open terrain". It would be a mystery if this were limited to objects. There is no single object presented with it. --- I 348 E.g. long-tailed monkeys: Mistakes in warning calls typically occur when harmless birds are quickly rushing down from the sky. So move before object._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Allen I Colin Allen Eric Saidel "The Evilution of Reference", in: The Evolution of Mind, C. Allen and D. Dellarosa Cummins (Eds.) Oxford 1998, pp. 183-203 In Der Geist der Tiere, D Perler/M. Wild, Frankfurt/M. 2005 Perler I Dominik Perler Markus Wild Der Geist der Tiere Frankfurt 2005 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-19