How Concepts Hook onto the World*
Christopher S. Hill · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014
It might be thought that deflationary theories of the reference of concepts are too thin to explain the fact that concepts provide us with cognitive purchase on the world. To explain this fact, it might seem, it is necessary to see reference as a ‘thick’ relation that is reducible to a natural relation like is used to encode information about. But this idea quickly leads to paradox, because the deflationary approach is mandated by powerful arguments. In response to this problem, it is maintained that deflationism is the correct view of reference, but that deflationary reference tracks or covaries with certain natural relations, and that in at least some cases, the natural relations in question tie concepts uniquely to specific objects and properties. These conclusions lead to an account of the relationship between reference and epistemic properties like cognitive purchase.