ABSTRACT

Indexicals are context-dependent expressions such as ‘now’ and ‘here’. Each has a character that determines, for each context of utterance, a referent. The direct reference view of proper names extends very naturally to what are called natural kind terms, such as ‘water’. Both have many properties of indexicals. In his famous ‘Twin-Earth’ argument, Putnam argues that reference even for such terms as ‘water’ is determined by context, not by inner psychological states. The character of an expression plus the context of utterance yields the content expressed by an utterance of the expression; in turn, the content plus the circumstance of evaluation yields the truth-value, extension or referent of the utterance. This ‘two dimensionalism’ captures the idea that despite its being (actually) necessary that water = H2O, things might have turned out that it is necessary that water is some other substance. It does not appear possible to regard indexicality as a mere convenience. Any map or calendar, for example, is useless unless one has an indexical anchor, and to find that something of the form The F is G is true is not intrinsically meaningful in the way that I am G is.