...What are the conditions on singular thought and what are the mechanisms of singular thought generation? The reigning view is that singular thinking is limited to objects of acquaintance. The alternative position, Semantic Instrumentalism, is that singular thoughts can be manufactured...

... and is rational in taking it to be satisfied can make the move from mere descriptive thought to descriptively mediated singular thought, thereby distinguishing the proposal of Chapter 6 from Kaplan’s semantic instrumentalism. Section 2 argues that description-based thoughts are object-dependent thoughts. Section...