De se thoughts and immunity to error through misidentification

Manuel García-Carpintero

pp. 3311-3333

in: Hanoch Ben-Yami, Robyn Carston, Markus Werning (eds), Trends in philosophy of language and mind, Synthese 195 (8), 2018.

Abstract

I discuss an aspect of the relation between accounts of de se thought and the phenomenon of immunity to error through misidentification. I will argue that a deflationary account of the latter—the Simple Account, due to Evans (The varieties of reference, 1982)—will not do; a more robust one based on an account of de se thoughts is required. I will then sketch such an alternative account, based on a more general view on singular thoughts, and show how it can deal with the problems I raise for the Simple Account.