Fodor, Jerry - What is Universally Quantified and Necessary and A Posteriori and It Flies South in the Winter?

12/15/2006

Presidential Address

The Jerry Fodor Over-used Latin Glossary:
Mutatis Mutandis: 'with the necessary changes having been made'
Ipso Facto: 'by the fact itself'
A Fortiori: 'from the stronger reason'
Ceteris Paribus: 'all else being equal'
Inter Alia: 'among other things'

Author begins with a review of the 'baptismal' account of fixing the names of natural kinds terms; fixing the referents for names.

1, the word 'water' lacks descriptive content.

2, baptism occurs when the speaker has the intention to name something. The flow of explanation goes from the mental state to the linguistic expression. The way author indicates it goes is as follows: "Let's call this kind of stuff: 'water'.".

3, the name 'water' is a rigid designator for possible worlds (modality), designating the same kind of stuff in all worlds where it exists at all.

Author claims that you need the modal to get necessary a posteriori facts. The modal is underwritten by the baptismal account of naming, since this account of naming designates rigidly and doesn't seek to describe the kind it designates, just designates the kind as 'water'.

Author then claims that the baptism intention can't match up to rigid designation. There are some possibilities:

1. You need the concept of water before you baptize that stuff as 'water'. Author likes this, but nobody else does. This still falls short, because you have to let people know that you're using the concept WATER when you're baptizing water as 'water', so you have to have 'water' be in the language prior to baptizing it as 'water'. Nobody likes this outcome. But as a solution, you have to baptize a natural kind using a representation that doesn't involve a concept. See next...

2. You try to say "this kind of stuff is 'water'." This uses a demonstrative, not a concept to baptize. The new problem, author points out, is that nobody really knows what you're pointing out when you say 'this kind of stuff'. Do you mean the stuff granny uses for brushing teeth? Do you mean the kind of stuff that fills a glass? Each token refers to multiple kinds.

Author considers various 'NP-- Not-Pooh' fixes to this problem and rejects them. He closes with a 'deeper problem' in trying to secure nomological necessity with semantic necessity.