Is Reference a Pseudo Relation?     Talk of reference is part of ordinary language, but to talk of a reference relation is to go beyond ordinary language. Is it to go too far? Does it embody a misconception about the nature of reference or the meaning of “refers”? Let us consider some relations in […]

                                                Insight and Analysis   Can conceptual analysis provide genuine insight? Can it increase our knowledge of the world? Consider the concept of breathing: how should it be analyzed? Not as absorbing oxygen by means of the lungs—that would rule out organisms that absorb some other gas and don’t have lungs (unless we define […]

                                                      Implicit Quotation       In ordinary writing people are not fussy about quotation marks. A printed sentence may read, “The word red has three letters”. Logicians and philosophers of language may shudder at such violations of the rules of use and mention, but most people take them in stride. It […]

      Identity and Difference     Identity has been found problematic; difference, not so much. Identity has been judged a pseudo relation, but no one doubts that difference is a genuine relation between things. We can observe that one thing is different from another, but can we observe that a thing is identical […]