Grice's Dossier

Speranza


Adapted from a brochure:

"The concept of a 'dossier', introduced by Grice in "Vacuous Names" (a tribute to Quine), has been used to theorize about a wide range of topics in the philosophy of mind and language, from the referential-attributive (or identificatory and non-identificatory, as Grice prefers) use of definite descriptions or the cognitive significance of identity statements (as Evans did), to the problem of cognitive dynamics and the nature of singular thought."

"In the seventies, neighbouring notions were introduced in linguistics to deal with definiteness, anaphora, and information structure."

"Shortly thereafter, object-files were postulated in cognitive psychology, first as part of models of mid-level object-directed attention in adults, then in theories of cognitive development, based on the hypothesized continuity of a core system of object-file representation from infancy to adulthood."

"It is not unreasonable to hope that researchers who invoke dossiers in various disciplines are zeroing in on a psychological natural kind."

"Still, there are important differences between the various uses to which the notion of a dossier is put, and more empirical and conceptual work has to be done before any unification can be attempted."

"Our main goal shoud be to bring together philosophers, psychologists and linguists in order to advance our understanding of mental files, as that notion is used in philosophy and throughout the cognitive sciences."

"We encourage submissions focusing on the conceptual foundations of the mental file framework, as well as submissions exploring the connections between appeal to mental files in philosophy and in empirical disciplines. Scientific work addressing foundational issues and philosophical work engaging in detail with recent scientific research is particularly welcome. All submissions should aim towards being as accessible as possible to a wide, multidisciplinary audience. Among the possible topics to be addressed are the following."

"Which phenomena in perceptual and developmental psychology are best explained by the idea of a dossier?"

"Are there different types of dossiers Are some files ‘descriptive’, and others ‘demonstrative’ or ‘indexical’?"

"Do we have specific files for the representation of kinds or sorts? For events, places or times? For the self?"

Does the file model accurately describe our cognitive architecture? Does neuroscientific evidence support this model? How does it relate to others, such as the language of thought hypothesis, etc.?

How is our mental filing system or mental ‘encyclopedia’ organized and how does it function? What formal tools (e.g., graphs) are appropriate for modeling its operations?

Which linguistic phenomena (such as implicature) can be better understood thanks to dossier? Are files needed to explain information structure, anaphora and semantic coordination, definiteness, discourse reference?

How does the postulation of files contribute to the theory of content?

Should modes of presentation be conceived of as mental files?

Do files satisfy various constraints on different types of content, e.g., transparency, publicity, generality?

References:

Evans, "Varieties of References"
Grice, "Vacuous Names".
Urmson, "Intentionality", Aristotelian Society.