Control, Attitudes de se and Immunity to Error Through Misidentification
Gaetano Fiorin, Denis Delfitto
Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia August 31, 2014 DOI: 10.4453/rifp.2014.0015 via DOAJ
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThe article examines James Higginbotham's claim that the silent subject of infinitival complements after verbs like 'remember' and 'imagine' is unambiguously de se and immune to error through misidentification relative to the matrix subject. The authors criticize Higginbotham's reflexive analysis and show that similar criticisms apply to accounts using acquaintance relations or centered possible worlds. Drawing on cognitive science, they propose an amendment based on the idea that the thematic role 'Experiencer' maps events into 'minimal selves' as defined by Shaun Gallagher.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Attitudes de se Control Thematic roles Minimal self Self-reference |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key finding | The authors argue that analyses of de se attitudes in infinitival complements, including Higginbotham's reflexive account and those based on acquaintance relations or centered worlds, face similar criticisms, and they propose an alternative based on the Experiencer role mapping events into minimal selves. |
Abstract
In his work on attitudes de se, James Higginbotham has observed that the silent subject of the infinitival complements of verbs such as remember and imagine is (i) unambiguously de se and (ii) immune to error through misidentification relatively to the subject of the matrix clause. In this article, we review and criticize Higginbotham’s reflexive analysis of these infinitival complements. We also show that the type of criticism we raise against Higginbotham’s account applies likewise to analyses based on the use of acquaintance relations and centered possible worlds. Finally, following recent ideas in cognitive science, we propose an amendment to Higginbotham’s account based on the idea that the thematic-role “Experiencer” corresponds to a function mapping events into “minimal selves”, in the sense of Shaun Gallagher.