"A robin": a tribute to Michael Dummett

Speranza



The illustration above, which I extracted from

http://media-3.web.britannica.com/eb-media/05/25905-004-E47C9B39.jpg

shows, as per the caption:

>scarlet robin: scarlet robin, European robin, and American robin

Strictly, a better caption, below the figure, reads:

"(Top) Scarlet robin (Petroica multicolor), (middle) European robin (Erithacus rubecula), (bottom) American robin (Turdus migratorius).

--- and there's quite a bit as to how to cite this.

INTERLUDE. How to cite this.

-- begin quoted text:

Credit Murrell Butler/EB Inc.
Links
•American robin (bird)
•European robin (bird)
•robin (bird)
•scarlet robin (bird)

Citations

MLA style:

scarlet robin: scarlet robin, European robin, and American robin. Art. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. .

APA style:

scarlet robin: scarlet robin, European robin, and American robin. [Art]. In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/7156/Scarlet-robin-European-robin-American-robin

Harvard style:

scarlet robin: scarlet robin, European robin, and American robin. [Art]. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 31 January 2012, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/7156/Scarlet-robin-European-robin-American-robin

Chicago Manual of Style:

scarlet robin: scarlet robin, European robin, and American robin, Art, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accessed January 31, 2012, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/7156/Scarlet-robin-European-robin-American-robin

--- end cited text. I'll stick with:

scarlet robin, European robin, and American robin.

To credit Frege, I would go with this other caption, too:

"European robin (Erithacus rubecula), ... American robin (Turdus migratorius)."


----

A Griceian scenario.

What I was wondering, seeing that the birds (the European, so-called, robin) and the American (so-called) robin, are pretty different...

The first spotter of an American robin must have said:

"A robin!"

----

My point -- Griceian -- is that he (the utterer) did think that this was a robin.

Indeed, it is.

Yet, it is not a

Erithacus-rubecula, but a Turdus-migratorius.

It is best to approach

"Erithacus-rubecula" and "Turdus-migratorius"

as complex names, alla Frege. Surely, 'robin' is _also_ a name, yet less complex (but cfr. "Robin Hood", now a complex name).

So, the scenarios are different:

A Linneaus-type genealogist, travelling to America: "That is a bird which I will refer to as 'a robin'. Not because it is a robin, in the _Fregean_ sense of "Erithacus-rubecula" but because, ... well, just because."

----

If the utterer did think that the Turdus-migratorius was an Erithacus-rubecula, surely the correct thing for him to say, under the circumstances, was:

"That's a robin".

---- Since he perhaps did not spot a big difference. Note that the complete name is "robin redbreast". And both the Erithacus-rubecula and the Turdus-migratorius have a red-breast (And since 'robin' is so fancy, why kant the name be used, with a different sense (and of course, reference) to two birds?).

And so on.

----

Next would be to doublecheck sources for this. Or not!

---

Cheers!