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The Question

Our question is one that famous philosophers have been asking for a while ... I want to start by asking you to read these quotes (see handout) and think about them. OBJECTIVE 1 : let’s try to understand them
\section{The Question’s History}

‘there are these objects out there. Here is the mind/brain, carrying on its thinking/computing. How do the thinker’s symbols ... get into a unique correspondence with objects and sets out there?’

\citep[p.~51]{Putnam:1981sw}

Putnam, 1981 p. 51

‘the implication of the thinking situation is of some ‘correspondence’ ... the problem of its nature and valid determination remains the central question of any theory of thinking’

\citep[p.~200]{Dewey:1907ka}

Dewey, 1907 p. 200

‘That truth is the correspondence of a representation with its object is, as Kant says, merely the nominal definition of it. ... But what does this correspondence or reference of the sign, to its object, consist in?’

\citep[p.~390/5.553]{Peirce:1906gu}

Peirce, 1906 p. 390/5.553

Why?

Steve’s Oct 4th, 2018 1.11pm utterance
‘Earth is being warmed by human activity.’
is true because Earth is being warmed by human activity.

Steve’s Oct 4th, 2018 1.11pm utterance
‘Mars is being warmed by human activity.’
is false because Mars is not being warmed by human activity.

Here is a true utterance.
...and here is a false utterance.
What makes for this difference between the two utterances? Why is one true but the other false? This is an easy question to answer, I think ...
Now for a much harder question ...
Now for a much harder question: Why is ’s’ true because p? How does it come about that this is what makes the utterance true?
I want to mention a clue so obvious that it is easy to overlook.
Think about the two utterances, how one has this word ‘Earth’ ...
What makes the utterance true or false has to depend on the words the sentence it expresses contains. But what are those words doing? What is it about them which contributes to determining which state of affairs makes the utterance true?
\section{The Question} Consider utterances of the following sentences: \begin{enumerate} \item ‘Earth is being warmed by human activity.’ \item ‘Mars is being warmed by human activity.’ \end{enumerate} The first depends for it’s truth on how things are with Earth whereas the second depends for its truth on how things are with Mars. Why do the two utterances differ in this way?
\section{Reference} Guess: It is because the utterance of ‘Earth’ stands in some relation to Earth whereas the utterance of ‘Mars’ stands in that relation to Mars.
Terminology: Call this relation ‘reference’.
Question: What is this relation? Is there really any such relation at all?