ABSTRACT
In the old days of descriptivism, reference was thought to be a function of one's epistemic connection to a referent, a connection fully established by one's beliefs about the referent, which were taken to be individuative of the content of one's thought. Under the causal theory, the idea that reference is a function of one's epistemic connection to a referent has been replaced by the idea that reference is a function of one's metaphysical connection to a referent. Viewing reference as a metaphysical rather than an epistemic affair guarantees an externalist view of reference, and to the extent that reference is what individualism is about, it constitutes a refutation of individualism. Whenever a new word is coined, whether its reference is fixed by ostention or by description, the coiner is always, however implicitly, investing the word with sortal commitments.
