Empty Thoughts and Vicarious Thoughts in the Mental File Framework

François Recanati (1)

1 IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod

Mental files have a referential role—they serve to think about objects in the world—but they also have a meta-representational role: when 'indexed', they serve to represent how other subjects think about objects in the world. This additional, meta-representational function of files is invoked to shed light on the uses of empty singular terms in negative existentials and pseudo-singular attitude ascriptions.

Mots clés: Mental files; acquaintance; empty names; singular thought; attitude ascriptions; negative existentials

Domaines: Philosophie; Linguistique

François Recanati. Empty Thoughts and Vicarious Thoughts in the Mental File Framework. Croatian Journal of Philosophy, 2014, pp.1-11. ⟨hal-01104722⟩