Reflecting the mind : indexicality and quasi-indexicality /
Eros Corazza.
- xiii, 368 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-362) and index.
Language and context -- Thought and context -- A multiple-proposition approach -- Demonstratives, pure indexicals, and essential indexicals -- The first-person pronoun -- Perspectival thoughts and psychological explanation -- Empathy, imagination, and reports -- Anaphora, logophoricity, and quasi-indexicality -- Quasi-indexicality and puzzling reports. Ch. 1. Ch. 2. Ch. 3. Ch. 4. Ch. 5. Ch. 6. Ch. 7. Ch. 8. Ch. 9.
"Eros Corazza presents a fascinating investigation of the role that indexicals (e.g. 'I', 'she', 'this', 'today', 'here') play in our thought. Indexicality is crucial to the understanding of such puzzling issues as the nature of the self, the nature of perception, social interaction, psychological pathologies, and psychological development. Corazza draws on work from philosophy, linguistics, and psychology to illuminate this key aspect of the relation between mind and world.; By highlighting how indexical thoughts are irreducible and intrinsically perspectival, Corazza shows how we can depict someone else's indexical thought from a third-person perspective. The phenomenon of quasi-indexicality is introduced here: to represent Jane saying, "I am prosperous," we use what Castaneda termed a quasi-indicator in a report of the form "Jane said that she (herself) is prosperous". Corazza argues that quasi-indicators play such an important role in our linguistic, social, and psychological life that they have a cognitive primacy over other mechanisms of reference. Quasi-indexicality also emerges as a key notion when we come to consider our ability to understand other minds. Corazza argues that indexicality and quasi-indexicality are two sides of the same coin, best understood within the framework of direct reference."--Publisher description.
019927018X 9780199270187
2005295722
Indexicals (Semantics) English language--Semantics