Ultra-liberal attitude reports

Journal article


Blumberg, Kyle Hammett and Holguín, Ben. (2018). Ultra-liberal attitude reports. Philosophical Studies. 175(8), pp. 2043 - 2062. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-0949-7
AuthorsBlumberg, Kyle Hammett and Holguín, Ben
Abstract

Although much has been written about the truth-conditions of de re attitude reports, little attention has been paid to certain ‘ultra-liberal’ uses of those reports. We believe that if these uses are legitimate, then a number of interesting consequences for various theses in philosophical semantics follow. The majority of the paper involves describing these consequences. In short, we argue that, if true, ultra-liberal reports: (1) bring counterexamples to a popular approach to de re attitude ascriptions, which we will call ‘descriptivism’; and (2) combine with independently plausible principles about the logic of belief to imply that subjects can achieve omniscience about what exists from the armchair. Although we are not committed to the view that ultra-liberal reports are false, in the final part of the paper we discuss the prospects of pursuing a line according to which the acceptability of such reports ought not be taken at face value. We conclude by arguing that those who are sympathetic with this move might have reason to doubt the truth of an even broader class of acceptable de re attitude reports, namely those that have been taken to undermine orthodox accounts of de re attitude ascriptions.

KeywordsPropositional attitude reports; De re ascriptions; Descriptivism; Singular thought; Contextualism
Year2018
JournalPhilosophical Studies
Journal citation175 (8), pp. 2043 - 2062
PublisherSpringer Netherlands
ISSN0031-8116
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-0949-7
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85022229179
Page range2043 - 2062
Research GroupDianoia Institute of Philosophy
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled
Place of publicationNetherlands
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