Books by Maximilian de Gaynesford
The Rift In The Lute: Attuning Poetry and Philosophy (Oxford, 2017)
The central claim is that I is a deictic term, like the other singular personal pronouns You and ... more The central claim is that I is a deictic term, like the other singular personal pronouns You and He / She. This establishes the logical character, inferential role, referential function, expressive use and communicative role of all and only expressions used to formulate first-personal reference in any language. The first part of the book shows why we should reject the standard account of I as a ‘pure indexical’ (‘purism’). Purism requires three mutually supportive doctrines which turn out to be myths: a) that a simple rule is sufficient to give the meaning of I (‘rule theory’); b) that one can use I to express thoughts without having to identify what is being referred to (‘independence’); and c) that as a matter of the meaning of I, any use of the term is logically guaranteed against failure to refer (‘the guarantee’). The second part of the book shows why we should endorse the radically new account of I as a deictic term. Substitution instances and the behaviour of I in inference reveal that it has an obligatorily deictic logical character and inferential role. I fulfils its referential function in the deictic way, providing determinacy of reference by making an individual referentially salient in the extra-sentential context. The discriminability of the referent of an I-use depends on recognizing the referentially salient individual. This is true of its discriminability both to the reference-maker and to the audience. So I has the expressive use and communicative role of a deictic term. The conclusion of the book directs research towards the next step, showing how the meaning of I may be used to elucidate the thoughts expressed by the term, and from there questions relating to self-knowledge, practical reasoning, belief-acquisition, and belief-ascription.
Putnam is one of the most influential philosophers of recent times, and his authority stretches f... more Putnam is one of the most influential philosophers of recent times, and his authority stretches far beyond the confines of the discipline. There is a considerable challenge in presenting his work both accurately and accessibly. This is due to the width and diversity of his published writings and to his frequent spells of radical re-thinking. But if we are to understand how and why philosophy is developing as it is, we need to attend to Putnam’s whole career. He has had a dramatic influence on theories of meaning, semantic content, and the nature of mental phenomena, on interpretations of quantum mechanics, theory-change, logic and mathematics, and on what shape we should desire for future philosophy. By presenting the whole of his career within its historical context, I locate a basic unity in his work, achieved through repeated engagements with a small set of hard problems. By foregrounding this integrity, the book aims to be both true to Putnam and helpful to readers of his work.
Seven newly commissioned essays by leading international philosophers that the highlight the most... more Seven newly commissioned essays by leading international philosophers that the highlight the most cutting-edge debates n the philosophy of action.
Papers by Maximilian de Gaynesford
Inquiry, 2023
Radical self-silencing is a particular variety of speech act disablement where the subject silenc... more Radical self-silencing is a particular variety of speech act disablement where the subject silences themselves, whether knowingly or not, because of their own faults or deficiencies. The paper starts with some concrete cases and preparatory comments to help orient and motivate the investigation. It then offers a summary analysis, drawing on a small number of basic concepts to identify its five individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions and discriminating their two basic forms, ‘internalist’ and ‘externalist’. The paper then explicates and defends what has been proposed, where the most salient and pressing objections concern the use of two basic concepts: ‘uptake’ and ‘silencing’. Finally, the paper gives a longer-term motivation for deepening our understanding of radical self-silencing, what it is, and what it implies.
Four Features
The Rift in The Lute
Conclusion: Weaving New Webs
The Rift in The Lute
Doing Time
The Rift in The Lute
What Matters
The Rift in The Lute
Four Poets
The Rift in The Lute
Chaucer-Type
The Rift in The Lute
Philosophers
The Rift in The Lute
Wittgenstein on “I” and the Self
A Companion to Wittgenstein
Consensus identifies an underlying continuity to Wittgenstein's treatment of the self and ... more Consensus identifies an underlying continuity to Wittgenstein's treatment of the self and 'I', despite certain obvious surface variations and revisions. Almost all Wittgenstein's arguments and observations concerning 'I' and the self in the Tractatus are arranged as attempts to explicate. The philosophical self is not the human being, not the human body, or the human soul, with which psychology deals, but rather the metaphysical subject, the limit of the world, not a part of it. The picture that forms around the consensus view is certainly enlightening about Wittgenstein on 'I' and the self, but this is so because rather than in spite of the difficulties we face in making it match. Contrary to the consensus view, there is little or no 'denigrating' of the first person in his thought, whether of the reductionist or eliminativist kind, and where it may be manifest limited uses only, and by contrast with the general case.
Phrasing
The Rift in The Lute, 2017
Scepticism in the sonnets
Poetic utterances: attuning poetry and philosophy
This chapter is an attempt to attune poetry and philosophy (specifically the philosophy of speech... more This chapter is an attempt to attune poetry and philosophy (specifically the philosophy of speech acts). The general idea is that literary critical attention may guide and be guided by philosophical reflection on difficult cases. The chapter focuses on the use that poets make of a particular phrase-type: first person present indicative active, where the verb names the act performed in uttering it. Complexities arise where poets play with this form, leaving us in doubt whether its various features are indeed exemplified. This chapter aims to give us the resources to practise attunement on whole poems, thus shedding light on the way that phrases of this type fit into broader patterns.
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Books by Maximilian de Gaynesford
Papers by Maximilian de Gaynesford