Talking About An Intentionalist Theory of Reference

Combining new insights from cognitive science and speech art theory, Unnsteinsson develops a compelling theory of singular reference which avoids well-known puzzles and objections. The theory, called Edenic intentionalism, is grounded in a mechanistic perspective on explanation in cognitive science and a new Gricean account of speaker meaning and speaker reference. Talking About: An Intentionalist Theory of Reference develops an account of the mental state of identity confusion and separates questions about the nature of representational acts and representational states. Unnsteinsson proposes a division of labour, but Edenic intentionalism is strictly a theory of intentional, mind-directed representational acts, taking speech acts as its paradigm case.

Talking About: An Intentionalist Theory of Reference argues that mental mechanisms ought to be postulated to explain human cognitive capacities. Pragmatic competence is the capacity to successfully produce utterances with a communicative intention. By examining the characteristic function and malfunction of the mechanism for referential competence, the study shows that confused reference should be understood as a type of malfunction. This is the core thesis of Edenic intentionalism: that the identity confusion disrupts the normal function of the speech art of reference.

Elmar Unnsteinsson, Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow, University College Dublin

Elmar Unnsteinsson completed his PhD at the City University of New York and is now an Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow at UCD whilst also affiliated with the University of Iceland as Research Scientist. Unnsteinsson works on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind and his next
book project deals with inner speech, insincere speech, and the nature of mental states and attitudes.