True Griceanism: Filling the Gaps in Callender and Cohen's Account of Scientific Representation. Issue 3 (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ruyant, Quentin
• Is Part Of: Philosophy of science. Volume 88:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 533
• Page End: 553
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: Science -- Periodicals; Science -- Philosophy; Science; Science -- Philosophy; Philosophie des sciences; Epistemology; Periodicals; 501
• DOI: 10.1086/712882
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1539-767X

Abstract

Abstract : Callender and Cohen have proposed to apply a "Gricean strategy" to the constitution problem of scientific representation. They suggest that scientific representation can be reduced to stipulation by epistemic agents. This account has been criticized for not making a distinction between symbolic and epistemic representation and not taking into account the communal aspects of representation. These criticisms would not apply if Grice's actual strategy were properly employed. I transpose Grice's strategy to epistemic representation. The main novelty of the resulting account is a distinction between contextual representational use and general representational status, which I address using the notion of indexicality.