Self-Reference : Reflections on Reflexivity

Self-reference, although a topic studied by some philosophers and known to a number of other disciplines, has received comparatively little explicit attention. For the most part the focus of studies of self-reference has been on its logical and linguistic aspects, with perhaps disproportionate emphasis placed on the reflexive paradoxes. The eight-volume Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, for example, does not contain a single entry in its index under "self-reference", and in connection with "reflexivity" mentions only "relations", "classes", and "sets". Yet, in this volume, the introductory essay identifies some 75 varieties and occurrences of self-reference in a wide range of disciplines, and the bibliography contains more than 1,200 citations to English language works about reflexivity. The contributed papers investigate a number of forms and applications of self-reference, and examine some of the challenges posed by its difficult temperament. The editors hope that readers of this volume will gain a richer sense of the sti11largely unexplored frontiers of reflexivity, and of the indispensability of reflexive concepts and methods to foundational inquiries in philosophy, logic, language, and into the freedom, personality and intelligence of persons. Front Matter....Pages i-2 Front Matter....Pages 3-3 Varieties of Self-Reference....Pages 5-28 Front Matter....Pages 29-29 Self-Reference and Meaning in a Natural Language....Pages 31-40 Logical Rudeness....Pages 41-67 The Pragmatic Paradox....Pages 68-87 Argumentum ad Hominem with and without Self-Reference....Pages 88-91 The Irreflexivity of Knowledge....Pages 92-109 Front Matter....Pages 111-111 Formalized Self-Reference....Pages 113-122 Quotation and Self-Reference....Pages 123-144 Unstable Solutions to the Liar Paradox....Pages 145-175 Front Matter....Pages 177-177 Causation and Self-Reference....Pages 179-192 Is Determinism Self-Refuting?....Pages 193-208 The Equivocation Defense of Cognitive Relativism....Pages 209-217 The Role of Retortion in the Cognitional Analyses of Lonergan and Polanyi....Pages 218-238 Reflexivity and the Decentered Self in Tristram Shandy ....Pages 239-256 Front Matter....Pages 257-257 A Bibliography of Works on Reflexivity....Pages 259-362 Back Matter....Pages 365-368