engleski

Referential descriptions in attitude reports

Ever since Donnellan suggested that definite descriptions are ambiguous as between referential and attributive use, the question of their ambiguity has been a matter of considerable controversy. In my paper I examine an argument in favour of Donnellan’ s distinction offered by William Lycan. Lycan claims that in some attitude reports we are forced to introduce the referential/attributive distinction in order to capture the natural reading of such reports. If he is right this is an interesting case for the distinction. I will give some reasons that could support Lycan’ s claim, together with some doubts that could undermine it.

attitude reports; definite descriptions; Donnellan’ s distinction; William Lycan; referential descriptions;

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