ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the linked but contrasting views of P. F. Strawson and G. Evans about objectivity and space. Strawson might respond by proposing a weaker interpretation of “all,” so that it means rather identifying reference to the same object at the same time, even if the referring expression itself is different. Strawson himself, however, makes a number of significant modifications or restrictions within the framework of his discussion as he sets about determining an answer to his question. An element in Strawson’s elucidation that needs preserving, though, is that the things that count as objective must be items that are perceptible by the subjects who are thinking about them. The chapter considers Evans’s arguments in favour of the necessity of understanding objectivity in spatial terms. Evans talks of people whose spatial observation is serial as having different spatial concepts, but there is no evidence presented in favour of speaking that way.
