Character, Impropriety, and Success: A Unified Account of Indexicals

Abstract

Abstract Core indexicals like ‘I’, ‘here’, and ‘now’ sometimes appear to refer to an object, place, or time other than the speaker, location, or time of utterance. This presents well‐known problems for Kaplan's view, which treats reference shifting as a violation of the character rules that give the meaning of indexicals. I propose a view according to which indexical reference is essentially a matter of the mutually‐accepted perspective of interlocutors. It follows that contexts need not be ‘proper’ in Kaplan's sense, and a successful convergence of perspectives is needed for indexical reference to succeed. I provide reasons for embracing these conclusions.