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A Debate about Words
Introduction
But if the names refer directly, that is without mediation by e.g. descriptions (“Hesperus is the brightest star in the evening sky”), then how can the identity statement be informative? The paper brings in the linguistics that was previously consigned to footnotes, but in Brombergerian fashion, it ends on a sceptical note about our current epistemic status regarding the nature of words. Those are issues that can be debated, but they cover just a tiny fraction of the topic circumscribed by “the nature of words” and largely neglect linguistic or cognitive considerations.
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