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Direct Reference (direct + reference)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	83%

Selected Abstracts

Direct Reference and Definite Descriptions

DIALECTICA, Issue 1 2008
Genoveva Marti
According to Donnellan the characteristic mark of a referential use of a definite description is the fact that it can be used to pick out an individual that does not satisfy the attributes in the description. Friends and foes of the referential/attributive distinction have equally dismissed that point as obviously wrong or as a sign that Donnellan's distinction lacks semantic import. I will argue that, on a strict semantic conception of what it is for an expression to be a genuine referential device, Donnellan is right: if a use of a definite description is referential, it must be possible for it to refer to an object independently of any attributes associated with the description, including those that constitute its conventional meaning. [source]

Direct Reference, Psychological Explanation, and Frege Cases

MIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 4 2005
Susan Schneider
I offer a new solution to the problem of Frege Cases. Frege Cases involve agents who are unaware that certain expressions co-refer (e.g. that ,Cicero' and ,Tully' co-refer), where such knowledge is relevant to the success of their behavior, leading to cases in which the agents fail to behave as the intentional laws predict. It is generally agreed that Frege Cases are a major problem, if not the major problem, that this sort of theory faces. In this essay, I hope to show that the theory can surmount the Frege Cases. [source]

Investment manager characteristics, strategy, top management changes and fund performance

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 3 2003
David R. Gallagher
Abstract The present study examines the performance of Australian investment management organisations with direct reference to their specific characteristics and strategies employed. Using a unique information source, performance is evaluated for actively managed institutional balanced funds, Australian share funds and Australian bond funds. For balanced mandates, performance is evaluated with respect to the investment strategy adopted, the experience and qualifications held by investment professionals, and the tenure of the key investment professionals. The present study examines the performance of top management and the impact on returns when turnover arises. The research documents that a significant number of active Australian equity managers earned superior risk-adjusted returns in the period, however, active managers perform in line with market indices for balanced funds and Australian bond funds. A number of manager characteristics are also found to predict risk-adjusted returns, systematic risk and investment expenses for balanced funds. [source]

TWO SPHERES, TWENTY SPHERES, AND THE IDENTITY OF INDISCERNIBLES

PACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2005
MICHAEL DELLA ROCCA
The only way to avoid these consequences is to reject brute identity and thus to accept the identity of indiscernibles. I also show how the rejection of the identity of indiscernibles derives some of its support from its affinity with a Kripkean account of trans-world identity and theories of direct reference. [source]

Kinds of Context: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Proper Names and Indexicals

PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Issue 2 2004
Eros Corazza
In focusing on indexicals and proper names and on the different ways in which their references are fixed, I illustrate how our linguistic practice rests on context, broadly construed. The following theses are discussed and defended: ,,There are two main kinds of information: (i) anchored information, i.e. the information one gathers in using and entertaining indexical expressions and (ii) unanchored information, i.e. the information one may gain in hearing a proper name. ,,Indexical expressions differ from proper names; this difference relies on the differing ways in which extra-linguistic context enters the scene. ,,The Kaplanian framework in particular, and the framework of direct reference in general, are best understood and appreciated against the background of a Wittgensteinian conception of language. [source]

The Macabre Style: Death Attitudes of Old-Age Home Residents in Israel

ETHOS, Issue 4 2003
Tova Gamliel
An inductive, ethnographic analysis of death attitudes among old-age home residents in Israel is employed to describe the construction of a peculiar death-related discourse termed "the macabre style." This authentic voice of elderly residents emerges from interviews, conversations, and observations as a form of self-immersion in a particular collective consciousness generated by expectations of impending death. The macabre style's rhetorical devices include grim and direct references to death and dying, black humor, historical archetypes, and biblical myths. This construct is further used in order to reflect on and criticize the conceptual circularity of conventional academic categories regarding death attitudes such as "acceptance" and "denial," and as an indication of an old age metonymic discourse of self-transcendence. [source]