Abstract
Abstract In this paper, I juxtapose the Symbol Grounding Problem and causal theories of reference. In the first part of the paper, I show some basic assumptions they share in order to show, in the second part, some difficulties implied by these assumptions. These difficulties are: the meaning determination problem, the easy and hard disjunction problem, and the trivialization problem. My diagnosis is that both the easy and hard disjunction problem result from a more general difficulty with causal theories and the SGP solution, which is the possibility of misrepresenting, and in particular of accounting for system-detectable error. I emphasize some implications they have for the notion of representation. Finally, I enumerate some theoretical desiderata for a satisfactory account of naturalized semantics (and solutions to SGP) that would be free of the problems mentioned above.
Published Version
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