Mediated reference theory: Difference between revisions

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TheA '''mediated reference theory'''<ref>Siobhan Chapman (ed.), ''Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language'', Edinburgh University Press, 2009, p. 202.</ref> (also '''indirect reference theory''')<ref name=Berezowski>Leszek Berezowski, ''Articles and Proper Names'', University of Wrocław, 2001, p. 67.</ref> is aany [[semantics|semantic]] theory that posits that words refer to something in the external world, but insists that there is more to the meaning of a name than simply the object to which it refers. It thus stands opposed to the theory of [[direct reference theory]]. Its[[Gottlob mostFrege]] famousis a well-known advocate isof themediated mathematicianreference theories.<ref name=Berezowski/><ref>G. W. Fitch, ''Naming and philosopherBelieving'', [[GottlobSpringer, Frege]]2012, p. The1.</ref> viewSimilar wastheories verywere widely held in the middle of the twentieth century by philosophers such philosophers as Sir [[Peter Strawson]] and [[John Searle]].

{{Unreferenced|date=December 2009}}

The '''mediated reference theory''' is a [[semantics|semantic]] theory that posits that words refer to something in the external world, but insists that there is more to the meaning of a name than simply the object to which it refers. It thus stands opposed to the theory of [[direct reference]]. Its most famous advocate is the mathematician and philosopher [[Gottlob Frege]]. The view was very widely held in the middle of the twentieth century by such philosophers as Sir [[Peter Strawson]] and [[John Searle]].

[[Saul Kripke]], a proponent of direct reference theory, in his ''[[Naming and Necessity]]'' dubbed mediated reference theory the '''Frege–Russell view'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> and criticized it.<ref>[[Saul Kripke]], ''[[Naming and Necessity]]''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972. p. 27.</ref> Subsequent scholarship refuted the claim that [[Bertrand Russell]]'s views on reference theory were the same as Frege's, since Russell was also a proponent of direct reference theory.<ref>Howard Wettstein, "Frege-Russell Semantics?", ''Dialectica'' '''44'''(1/2), 1990, pp. 113–135, esp. 115: "Russell maintains that when one is acquainted with something, say, a present sense datum or oneself, one can refer to it without the mediation of anything like a Fregean sense. One can refer to it, as we might say, ''directly''."</ref>

==See also==

* [[Direct reference theory]]

* [[Sense and reference]]

* [[Descriptivist theory of names]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

==External links==

* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/meaning/ Theories of Meaning (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]

{{Philosophy of language}}

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[[Category:Theories of language]]

[[Category:Reference]]

[[Category:Meaning (philosophy of language)]]