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 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Attitudes de se Control Thematic roles Minimal self Self-reference |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key points | Argues that Higginbotham's reflexive analysis of de se attitudes in infinitival complements faces criticisms that also apply to acquaintance-based and centered-worlds analyses, and proposes an amendment linking the Experiencer role to 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.