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The Question Simplified

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.

Not back to the main quesiton: why?
Let’s substitute a simpler question. Why do the two utterances differ in this way: one depends for it’s truth on how things are with Earth whereas the other depends for its truth on how things are with Mars.
I guess that might have something to do with these words. But what?

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/

An idea, in outline

1. ‘Earth’ refers to Earth

2. An utterance of ‘Mars’ refers to Mars

3. The two utterances differ in what would make them true because of (1) and (2).

What is this reference thing?

But what (if anything) is reference?

Something we postulate to explain the difference between these utterances. (Background: systematic contribution of words)

fact to be explained

Those utterances differ in that one is made true by how things are with Earth whereas the other is made true by how things are with Mars.

attempted explanation

‘Earth’ refers to Earth whereas ‘Mars’ refers to Mars.

But what (if anything) is reference?

Davidson : it might not explain anything at all, might be a merely formal thing.

‘Reference, in ordinary parlance, is aboutness.’

Devitt & Hanley, 2008 p. 11

Steve’s utterance is about Earth.

(*!) ‘Earth’ is about Earth.

fact to be explained

Those utterances differ in that one is made true by how things are with Earth whereas the other is made true by how things are with Mars.

attempted explanation

‘Earth’ refers to Earth whereas ‘Mars’ refers to Mars.

But what (if anything) is reference?

So I stand by my position. Whether there is any such thing as reference depends on whether we can say something about what it is, and whether what we say does really contribute to a correct explanation of The Difference between those two utterances.

complication: words vs utterances

A single word can be used for an open-ended range of different things.

In the UK, you can name your baby ‘Earth’.

What refers cannot be a word.

Compare: Sentences are not the kind of thing that can be true or false.

1. Words are constituents of sentences.

2. Sentences can be uttered.

3. In uttering a sentence, you utter its constituent words.

4. Reference is a relation linking

utterances of words

to

things.

Clearly lots of philosophers think that words do refer ...

‘What is the mechanism of reference?

‘In other words, in virtue of what does a word (of the referring sort) attach to a particular object/individual?’

‘Reference’, Stanford Enyclopedia of Philosophy

fact to be explained

Those utterances differ in that one is made true by how things are with Earth whereas the other is made true by how things are with Mars.

attempted explanation

‘Earth’ refers to Earth whereas ‘Mars’ refers to Mars.

But what (if anything) is reference?

Strictly speaking we should have been talking about utterances of words.

Why do those utterances differ in that one is made true by how things are with Earth whereas the other by how things are with Mars?

Guess: There is some relation between the utterance of ‘Earth’ [the word] and Earth [the thing] in virtue of which Steve’s utterance of the sentence is about Earth rather than Mars.

Terminology: call it ‘reference’

Q: What is this relation?