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Stefano Predelli

University of Nottingham

Millian Dubbings: A Double-Context Approach to Name-Types

0. Introduction

This essay puts forth a theoretical framework inspired by a familiar picture of proper names. This ‘familiar picture’ is the conjunction of two claims: (i) a pre-semantic claim based on the idea of a dubbing, and (ii) a genuinely semantic claim to the effect that proper names are non-indexical devices of direct reference (hereinafter, for short, Millianism). The framework I propose combines these insights in what I call a Theory of Use for name-types, grounded on the idea of the evaluation of an expression-type with respect to two contextual parameters.

In section one, I develop the theme mentioned in (i) and I propose a formal rendering of dubbings, and relatedly of the use of name-types, focusing on the aspects that will be of relevance for my project. The semantic apparatus to which (ii) alludes is presented in section two, where I rehearse certain familiar features of the Millian theory of names. Sections three and four put forth the main protagonist of this essay: a Theory of Use for name-types, with the accompanying double context framework.

1. Pre-Semantics: dubbings and uses

It is a commonplace that sheer name-types are not the appropriate bearers of semantic properties—in particular, they are not the bearers of properties relevant at the level of truth-conditions. So, ‘Mary’ qua four-letter name-type may be employed so...