Abstract: The aim of this talk is to bring together work in metaphysics and the philosophy of language to shed light on how speakers use referential expressions to pick out per-sisting entities. Focussing on proper names and pronouns, I argue that ordinary speakers use proper names and pronouns variably to pick out temporal segments or phases of objects, rather than entire spacetime worms, instantaneous stages or wholly present objects. And I suggest that this semantic variability is best construed as a kind of context-sensitivity, which I call persistence context-sensitivity. Persistence context-sensitivity matters for metaphysics: while theories of persistence are commonly assessed in terms of how well they fit with ordinary language use, it becomes apparent that none of the standard theories of persistence are in line with such use. And persistence context-sensitivity matters for semantics and metasemantics: it supports the view that names are context-sensitive, strengthens parallels between names and pronouns, bears on the distinction between stage-level and individual-level predicates and raises metasemantic questions about how referential expressions receive a semantic value in context.
Activities > Colloquium > Reference and persistence
