Pragmatism and reference

Pragmatist thought has enjoyed renewed attention in recent years, yet much of the analytic philosophy of language still passes over what the classical and neopragmatist thinkers have to say. David Boersema contends that viewing reference through a pragmatist lens yields a clearly different account, one that can also correct the dominant analytic positions.

The book begins with the two received analytic accounts of reference, the descriptivist and the causal theories, and then turns to Wittgenstein, whose remarks on language, concepts and categorization point toward a pragmatist outlook. Boersema then works through the pragmatist position in detail, examining nine thinkers. Peirce, James and Dewey form the core of classical pragmatism. Putnam, Catherine Elgin and Richard Rorty represent contemporary American philosophy, and Umberto Eco, Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas bring in the continental tradition.

In the final section, Boersema shows how this approach offers a genuinely different theory of reference, illustrating it with case studies of proper names. He concentrates on individuation, similarity, essence and the social character of language. Written as a bridge between the analytic and pragmatist traditions, the book addresses readers interested in how language works and what it refers to.