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Russellian Acquaintance and Frege’s Puzzle
Journal article

Russellian Acquaintance and Frege’s Puzzle

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that a number of recent Russell interpreters, including Evans, Davidson, Campbell, and Proops, mistakenly attribute to Russell what I call ‘the received view of acquaintance’: the view that acquaintance safeguards us from misidentifying the objects of our acquaintance. I contend that Russell’s discussions of phenomenal continua cases show that he does not accept the received view of acquaintance. I also show that the possibility of misidentifying the objects of acquaintance should be unsurprising given underappreciated aspects of Russell’s overall theory of knowledge and acquaintance. Finally, I consider the radical impact that Russell’s actual views on acquaintance have for our understanding of his well-known George IV case in ‘On Denoting’. In particular, I argue that Russell’s treatment of the George IV case is not a one-size-fits-all solution to Frege’s Puzzle and provides no support for the received view of acquaintance.

Authors

Wishon D

Journal

Mind, Vol. 126, No. 502, pp. 321–370

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Publication Date

April 1, 2017

DOI

10.1093/mind/fzv193

ISSN

0026-4423
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