-
52Semantic conventions and referential intentionsSynthese 202 (1): 1-16. 2023.According to intentionalism, the semantic reference of the uses of demonstratives is fixed, at least partly, by the speaker’s referential intention. In this paper, I argue against the possibility of the existence of a semantic convention of this sort. My argument is placed in the Lewisian framework of signaling games and consists of several steps that correspond to four anti-intentionalist arguments, already present in the literature, that have proven inconclusive when employed separately and wi…Read more
-
100Don’t be deceived: bald-faced lies are deceitful assertionsSynthese 201 (6): 1-21. 2023.The traditional conception of lying, according to which to lie is to make an assertion with an intention to deceive the hearer, has recently been put under pressure by the phenomenon of bald-faced lies i.e. utterances that _prima facie_ look like lies but because of their blatancy allegedly lack the accompanying intention to deceive. In this paper we propose an intuitive way of reconciling the phenomenon of bald-faced lies with the traditional conception by suggesting that the existing analyses …Read more
-
40Can the reference of a use of “That” change? Assessing nonstandard approaches to the semantics of demonstrativesJournal of Pragmatics 209 31-40. 2023.The debate over the semantics of demonstratives is in a stalemate between those positions attributing some referential significance to a speaker's referential intentions and those not doing so. The latter approach is supported by cases driving the non-intentional intuition in which the speakers mistakenly point at objects other than the ones they intend to refer to. The intentionalists, such as Martin Montminy, reply that once we think of potential extensions of such cases in which the speaker e…Read more
-
54A Not-so-Simple Rule for ‘I’Philosophical Quarterly 73 (4): 1100-1119. 2023.Maximilian de Gaynesford has argued against the standard view that the reference of the first-person pronoun ‘I’ is determined by a rule linking the referent to some feature of the context of use. In this paper, we argue that de Gaynesford's arguments are inconclusive. Our main aim, however, is to formulate a novel version of the reference rule for ‘I’. We argue that this version can deal with several problematic cases. Our strategy involves analysing the so-called agent of the context as the pe…Read more
-
51Speaker’s Intentions, Ambiguous Demonstrations, and Relativist Semantics for DemonstrativesPhilosophia 50 (4): 2085-2111. 2022.In this paper, I do four things. First, I argue that Recanati’s recent argument for intentionalist semantics for demonstratives is erroneous. I do this partly by suggesting that demonstrations should be treated as features of Kaplanian context. Second, I explain why the classic ambiguity objection against conventionalist positions regarding demonstratives is not in any way less problematic for intentionalism. Third, I propose a novel semantic framework for demonstratives that is able to simultan…Read more
-
12The Liar, Contextualism, and the Stalnakerian View of ContextStudia Semiotyczne 33 (1): 49-57. 2019.My aim in this paper is to amend the Stalnakerian view of context in such a way that it can allow for an adequate treatment of a contextualist position regarding the Liar Paradox. I discuss Glanzberg’s contextualism and the reason why his position cannot be encompassed by the Stalnakerian view, as it is normally construed. Finally, I introduce the phenomenon I call “semantic dissonance”, followed by a mechanism accommodating the Stalnakerian view to the demands of Glanzberg’s contextualism.
-
91Centred Propositions, What is Asserted, and CommunicationTheoria 87 (1): 187-206. 2021.In recent years there has been a heated debate on how to accommodate John Perry's observations about the essentiality of indexicality into our models of linguistic communication. This article is an attempt at providing a new perspective on this issue. I argue that we should jettison two elements taken for granted by the views I present, and criticize, here: no centring, uncentring, recentring and multicentring. These elements are: (1) taking the asserted content to be a part of the communication…Read more
-
14Are We Rational When It Comes to Rationality?Filozofia Nauki 26 (4): 131-145. 2018.The paper is a review of the book 'Rationality and Decision Making: From Normative Rules to Heuristics' edited by Marek Hetmański. The volume consists of eighteen chapters on different topics revolving around the common theme of rationality. The review discusses each paper, focusing more closely on some, in order to evaluate the arguments and claims that I find interesting, controversial, or surprising. Most chapters fall into the category of standard analy…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Language |
Meaning |
Reference |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Philosophy of Language |
Meaning |
Reference |