•  26
    Pragmatic Paradoxes
    Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 17 (1-2): 289-298. 1994.
    As several philosophers have noticed, the meaning of an utterance is twofold: besides what it says, there is what it shows—or rather what the uttering of the utterance shows. In certain cases, a contradiction may arise between what is said and what is is shown. Contradictions of this type, called ‘pragmatic contradictions’, must be carefully distinguished from ordinary contradictions, i.e., from contradictions internal to what is said.
  •  26
    Aims and Scope This volume brings together original papers by linguists and philosophers on the role of context and perspective in language and thought. Several contributions are concerned with the contextualism/relativism debate, which has loomed large in recent philosophical discussions. In a substantial introduction, the editors survey the field and map out the relevant issues and positions.
  •  26
    Are 'here' and 'now' indexicals?
    Texte 27 115-127. 2001.
    It is argued there is nothing special or deviant about the use of 'now' to refer to a time in the past (or about the use of 'here' to refer to a distant place) — no need to appeal to pragmatic mechanisms such as context-shifting to account for such uses. Such uses are puzzling only if one (mistakenly) maintains that 'here' and 'now' are pure indexicals. In the paper it is claimed that they are more similar to demonstratives than to pure indexicals. Updated material on this can be found in *Truth…Read more
  •  23
    Meaning and Force: The Pragmatics of Performative Utterances
    with Robert M. Harnish
    Philosophical Review 100 (2): 297. 1991.
  •  21
    My contribution to the 'MIMESIS, METAPHYSICS AND MAKE-BELIEVE' conference held in honour of Kendall Walton in the University of Leeds
  •  20
    Collins (and Elbourne) on free pragmatic processes
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. forthcoming.
    The debate between literalism and contextualism bears on the (in-)existence of ‘free' pragmatic processes, i.e. pragmatic processes of interpretation which contribute to shaping intuitive truth-conditional content without being mandated by anything in the sentence itself. In his new book John Collins defends the contextualist position. He focusses on so-called ‘unarticulated constituents' (e.g. the unmentioned location of rain in a statement like ‘It is raining’) and argues against the idea that…Read more
  •  20
    Response to Dokic's contribution in the proceedings of the Granada workshop
  •  17
    It has often been observed that the meaning of a word may be affected by the other words which occur in the same sentence. How are we to account for this phenomenon of 'semantic flexibility'? It is argued that semantic flexibility reduces to context-sensitivity and does not raise unsurmountable problems for standard compositional accounts. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to assume too simple a view of context-sensitivity. Two basic forms of context-sensitivity are distinguished in the p…Read more
  •  17
    IV*—Contextual Dependence and Definite Descriptions
    Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 87 (1): 57-74. 1987.
    François Recanati; IV*—Contextual Dependence and Definite Descriptions, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 87, Issue 1, 1 June 1987, Pages 57–74, h.
  •  16
    Jules Vuillemin et la philosophie analytique
    Revue de Synthèse 141 (1-2): 11-33. 2020.
    Résumé Dans cette communication, qui reprend en partie les idées exposées il y a trente ans dans un article de Critique, François Recanati entreprend de caractériser la philosophie analytique en discutant une demi-douzaine de traits supposés distinctifs de la discipline : l’usage de la logique, l’importance de la philosophie du langage considérée comme philosophie première, le refus de réduire la philosophie à l’histoire de la philosophie, l’idée que la philosophie est une discipline de second n…Read more
  •  16
    Relativized Propositions
    In Michael O'Rourke & Corey Washington (eds.), Situating Semantics : Essays on the Work of John Perry, Mit Press. pp. 119-153. 2007.
    Can we solve the problem of the essential indexical, and account for de se belief, by appealing to 'relativized propositions' (functions from rich indices to truth-values)? According to John Perry, we cannot. This paper offers a detailed examination and a critique of Perry's argument.
  •  14
    Replies
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 58 (4): 408-437. 2015.
  •  14
    Response to Carston's paper, 'How Many Pragmatic Systems Are There'?
  •  13
    Putnam is known for having demonstated the existence of a new form of context-dependence, namely that which characterizes natural kind terms. Terms like ‘tiger' and ‘water' are indexical, Putnam says, since their conditions of application varies with the context of use — in a suitably broad sense of ‘context'. In this talk I focus on the relation between Putnam's semantics and a body of views I call ‘contextualism'. Contextualism generalizes context-sensitivity : it claims that sentences carry c…Read more
  •  13
    Direct Reference: From Language to Thought
    with George M. Wilson
    Philosophical Review 104 (1): 159. 1995.
  •  12
    Response to Voltolini's contribution in the proceedings of the Granada workshop
  •  10
    Response to Iglesias' contribution in the proceedings of the Granada workshop
  •  10
    Response to Brabanter's contribution in the proceedings of the Granada workshop
  •  9
    Mental files in flux
    Oxford University Press. 2016.
    François Récanati has pioneered the 'mental file' framework for thinking about concepts and how we refer to the world in thought and language. He now explores what happens to mental files in a dynamic setting: Recanati argues that communication involves interpersonal dynamic files.
  •  9
    Philosophie du langage (et de l’esprit)
    Editions Gallimard. 2008.
    Philosophie du langage et philosophie de l'esprit constituent désormais un tout indissociable. Les expressions linguistiques «signifient». Qu'est-ce que cela veut dire? François Recanati distingue trois réponses possibles. Selon la première, signifier c'est (pour une expression linguistique) être associée à des représentations mentales. Selon la deuxième, signifier c'est «faire référence» et renvoyer à quelque chose dans le monde – une réalité extralinguistique. Selon la troisième, enfin, signi…Read more
  •  8
    How Narrow is Narrow Content?
    Dialectica 48 (3-4): 209-229. 1994.
    SummaryIn this paper I discuss two influential views in the philosophy of mind: the two‐component picture draws a distinction between ‘narrow content’ and ‘broad content’, while radical externalism denies that there is such a thing as narrow content. I argue that ‘narrow content’ is ambiguous, and that the two views can be reconciled. Instead of considering that there is only one question and three possible answers corresponding to Cartesian internalism, the two‐component picture, and radical ex…Read more
  •  8
    I distinguish, and discuss the relations between, five types of context-shift involving indexicals. For 'intentional' indexicals - indexicals whose value depends upon the speaker's intention - we can shift the context more or less 'at will', by manifesting one's intention to do so. For other indexicals we can shift the context through pretense. Following a number of authors, I distinguish two types of context-shifting pretense, corresponding to two sets of linguistic phenomena. The fourth type o…Read more
  •  8
    Cet article propose un traitement de l'indexicalité mentale utilisant la notion de fichier.
  •  7
    Talk about Fiction
    Lingua E Stile 33 (3): 547-558. 1998.
    An analysis of sentences about fiction.
  •  7
    Response to Predelli's contribution in the proceedings of the Granada workshop