{"id":10702,"date":"2023-09-14T14:08:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T13:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/event\/language-and-mind-seminar-13\/"},"modified":"2023-09-14T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T13:11:58","slug":"language-and-mind-seminar-13","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/event\/language-and-mind-seminar-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Language and Mind Seminar: Matheus Valente (LOGOS and Val\u00e8ncia)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Title<\/b>: Purely perspectival ignorance and purely perspectival differences<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Abstract<\/b>: One might hold that\u00a0de se\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0self-locating\u00a0<\/i>beliefs associated to ‘I’ and ‘now’ are philosophically significant but disagree with Lewis and Perry that this requires taking them to be\u00a0relative\u00a0<\/i>or\u00a0private<\/i>. However, a quick look at the recent literature – including surveys by Titelbaum & Egan (2022) and Torre & Weber (2021) – might give one a different impression, for most who think that there’s something special about these beliefs overall agree with that it can be illustrated by the Lewis-Perry “either relative or private” dilemma. Indeed, I’ll argue that, deep down, this applies even to authors like Stalnaker 2008 and Prosser 2005, 2015 who otherwise are critical of Lewis and Perry. As far as I can see, the ubiquity of the Lewis-Perry dilemma can only be justified, if at all, by two kinds of arguments: arguments from\u00a0purely perspectival ignorance (PPI)\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0from<\/i>\u00a0purely perspectival differences (PPD)<\/i>. Let’s evaluate these arguments taking recent contributions into account. Like Kwon (2017), I’m sceptical about arguments from PPI. The issue is I find it impossible to conceive of a\u00a0rational subject<\/i>\u00a0(like you and me) who is objectively omniscient but harbours a purely perspectival doubt, as Lewis’ (1979) gods and, more recently, Shaw’s (2019) forgetful god are supposed to be. In any case, I still think that Shaw’s discussion\u00a0shows something important:\u00a0de nunc<\/i>\u00a0ignorance can arise in a peculiar way, we need only stop tracking time for a second. But I don’t think this needs to lead us to anything like the Lewis-Perry dilemma, for there’s promise in an alternative approach,\u00a0the Frege-Evans view\u00a0<\/i>(the name comes from Prosser 2005 but the view is inspired by Evans 1982). In the end of the day, whether the Frege-Evans view is ultimately tenable depends on the soundness of the argument from PPD, which I see as the strongest and most resilient reason to hold on to the orthodoxy. Few people ever dare challenge this compelling argument, but the last months have seen two exceptions: Lin (2022) and Hunter (2023). Let’s then look at their arguments against the entrenched assumption that\u00a0purely perspectival differences<\/i>\u00a0give rise to\u00a0belief differences<\/i>. I’m sympathetic to Lin and Hunter’s ambitions but I think their\u00a0arguments require improvement. I’ll do my best for this. One key idea is that, from the perspective of rational explanation and belief individuation, we can distinguish\u00a0which\u00a0<\/i>action subjects perform from\u00a0how\u00a0<\/i>they perform it. If so, then hopefully your eyebrows won’t be raised too high when I say that a subject’s\u00a0curling up into a ball<\/i>\u00a0and another’s\u00a0running to get help\u00a0<\/i>are the\u00a0<\/i>same action\u00a0performed in distinct ways.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Evans, G. (1982).\u00a0The Varieties of Reference<\/i>. OUP.<\/div>\n
Hunter, David (2023).\u00a0On Believing<\/i>. OUP.<\/div>\n
Kwon, Hongwoo (2017). ‘Mary and the Two Gods: Trying Out an Ability Hypothesis’.\u00a0Philosophical Review<\/i>\u00a0126 (2):191-217.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Lin, Lixiao (forthcoming<\/i>). ‘Attitudes and action: against de se exceptionalism’.\u00a0Inquiry<\/i>.<\/div>\n
Prosser, Simon (2005). ‘Cognitive dynamics and indexicals’.\u00a0Mind and Language<\/i>\u00a020 (4):369\u2013391.<\/div>\n
Prosser, Simon (2015). ‘Why Are Indexicals Essential?’.\u00a0Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society<\/i>\u00a0115 (3pt3):211-233.<\/div>\n
Stalnaker, Robert (2008).\u00a0Our Knowledge of the Internal World<\/i>. OUP.<\/div>\n
Shaw, James R. (2019). ‘De Se Exceptionalism and Frege Puzzles’.\u00a0Ergo<\/i>\u00a06:1057-1086.<\/div>\n
Titelbaum, Michael & Egan, Andy (2022). ‘Self-Locating Beliefs’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.<\/div>\n

Torre, Stephan & Weber, Clas (2021). ‘What is Special about De Se Attitudes?’\u00a0In<\/i>\u00a0Stephen Biggs & Heimir Geirsson (eds.),\u00a0The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Reference<\/i>. Routledge. pp. 464-481.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title: Purely perspectival ignorance and purely perspectival differences Abstract: One might hold that\u00a0de se\u00a0and\u00a0self-locating\u00a0beliefs associated to ‘I’ and ‘now’ are philosophically significant but disagree with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[],"class_list":["post-10702","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/10702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/10702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10704,"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/10702\/revisions\/10704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10702"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=10702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}