Folk Intuitions about Reference Change and the Causal Theory of Reference

Abstract

In this paper, we present and discuss the findings of two experiments about reference change. Cases of reference change have sometimes been invoked to challenge traditional versions of semantic externalism, but the relevant cases have never been tested empirically. The experiments we have conducted use variants of the famous Twin Earth scenario to test folk intuitions about whether natural kind terms such as ‘water’ or ‘salt’ switch reference after being constantly (mis)applied to different kinds. Our results indicate that this is indeed so. We argue that this finding is evidence against Saul Kripke’s causal-historical view of reference, and at least provisional evidence in favor of the causal source view of reference as suggested by Gareth Evans and Michael Devitt.

Is Identity Essentialism a Fundamental Feature of Human Cognition?

“…Recent work in experimental semantics has used scenarios about chemical substances, which are inspired by Putnam's thought experiments (e.g., Devitt & Porter, 2021; Genone & Lombrozo, 2012; Haukioja, Nyquist, & Jylkkä, 2021; Jylkkä, Railo, & Haukioja, 2009; Koch & Wiegmann, 2020; Nichols, Pinillos, & Mallon, 2016; Tobia, Newman, & Knobe, 2020; see also Braisby, Franks, & Hampton, 1996; Hampton, Estes, & Simmons, 2007). Overall, eliciting either classification judgments, truth value judgments, or use, this literature casts doubts on whether lay people believe that membership in substances is exclusively constituted by their molecular structure to the exclusion of their observational properties (see also Machery, 2009; Malt, 1994).…”