Reference, Representation, and the Meaning of the First-Person Singular Pronoun

Abstract

There are varieties of reference and varieties of representations, so it is difficult, if not impossible, to talk about the relation between referring and representing in general terms. In order to address the issue about the relation between reference and representation, I will focus on a specific device of singular reference, the first-person pronoun 'I'. The questions to ask, then, are: What does the 'I' refer to? What does the 'I' represent? And does the 'I' representation play a role in determining or in any other way identifying the referent of 'I'? Contemporary wisdom takes it for granted that the term T refers directly to the individual it stands for without needing any mediating representations.