In:
Synthese, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 199, No. 1-2 ( 2021-12), p. 3825-3851
Abstract:
Perner and Roessler (in: Aguilar J, Buckareff A (eds) Causing human action: new perspectives on the causal theory of action, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 199–228, 2010) hold that children who do not yet have an understanding of subjective perspectives, i.e., mental states, explain actions by appealing to objective facts. In this paper, we criticize this view. We argue that in order to understand objective facts, subjects need to understand perspectives. By analysing basic fact-expressing assertions, we show that subjects cannot refer to facts if they do not understand two types of perspectivity, namely, spatial and doxastic perspectivity. To avoid conceptual confusion regarding different ways of referring to facts, we distinguish between reference to facts de re and de dicto .
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0039-7857
,
1573-0964
DOI:
10.1007/s11229-020-02958-9
Language:
English
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
204075-X
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2012638-4
SSG:
11
SSG:
5,1
SSG:
5,2
SSG:
7,11
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