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person1960s-present

David Kaplan

Disciplines:
logic
philosophy of mind
philosophy/philosophy of language

Summary

American philosopher who developed the formal semantics of indexicals and demonstratives, distinguishing character from content.

Core Contribution

In Demonstratives, distinguished the character of an expression (a rule mapping contexts to contents) from its content (what it contributes to propositions), providing the canonical formal framework for context-dependence in language.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Insists that indexicals like 'I' and 'now' are directly referential — they contribute their referents, not descriptions, to propositions — opposing Fregean sense-based accounts.
  • Distinguishes monsters (operators shifting the context of evaluation) from intensional operators, and argues natural language has no monsters.

Notable Works & Achievements

Demonstratives

Afterthoughts

A Logic of Indexicals

Historical Influences

Gottlob Frege Bertrand Russell Saul Kripke

Intellectual Lineage

Analytic Philosophy Formal Semantics Fregean Logic

Contemporaries & Peers

Saul Kripke Hilary Putnam David Lewis

Minds Influenced

David Lewis Robert Stalnaker David Chalmers

Intellectual Posterity

Character-Content DistinctionDirect Reference TheoryFormal Semantics of Indexicals

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