[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-272172-105":59,"doc-detail-272172-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-myth-of-the-essential-indexical","The Myth of the Essential Indexical","","The essay challenges the view that “essential indexicals” are genuinely indexical in thought. It argues that what makes certain thoughts indispensable lies in their psychological function rather than indexical semantics. Through examples involving self-location and action guidance, the text critiques accounts that tie orientation directly to indexical relations between tokens, interpreters, and referents. It further proposes that the genre of indexicals is absent from thought and reframes indexical meaning via adapting relations and character.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-myth-of-the-essential-indexical/272172/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-myth-of-the-essential-indexical/272172.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Sage","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-26","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the central thesis of the essay?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Essential indexicals are essential in thought, but they are not indexical. Their importance comes from psychological function, not from indexical semantics.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the author argue indexical thoughts do not guide action?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The author contends that orientation toward action is not explained by taking indexical or interpreter-to-referent relations into account in the general case.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the essay explain what makes an indexical token refer to something?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"An indexical token lacks a constant referent; it gets a referent only in an appropriate context containing an “indexical adapting relation” that determines what the token indexes.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},272172,1790230642,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},687197207057,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","~  \nThe Myth of the Essential Indexical  \nThesis: So-called \"essential indexicals\" in thought are indeed essential, but they are not indexical. It is not their semantics that distinguishes them but their function, their psychological role.  \n***********  \nA strong contemporary current runs to the effect that the ability of an agent to project knowledge of the world into relevant action in the world depends on the ability to think indexical thoughts. For example, if I wish to get to Boston, it may be helpful to know that the 8:25 train goes there. But I cannot put this knowledge to use unless I also come to know, at some point, that there [a place indexed via perception] is the 8:25 train. Similarly, should my life be endangered by an approaching bear, it might help me to know it. But it will not be enough forme to know of this danger to me under some impersonal description of me, such as \"the person sitting in Bruno's favorite berry patch\" or even under the name \"Ruth Millikan,\" unless I further know that I am the person in Bruno's favorite berry patch or that I am Ruth Millikan (I might not know, for example, should I be amnesiac). But this kind of thoughtSSthere is the 8:25; I am Ruth MillikanSSis, it is supposed, indexical. Thus Dennett, summing up the literature, remarks,\"lndexicality of sentences appears to be the linguistic counterpart of that relativity to a subjective point of view that is a hallmark of mental states\" (Dennett 1987, 132) .1 He clarifies, using a (ubiquitous) quotation in which Perry remarks, \"When you and I have beliefs under the common character of 'A bear is about to attack me' we behave similarly, ... [whereas] when you and I both apprehend that I am about to be attacked by a bear we behave differently\" (Perry 1977, 494) . That is, our behaviors hinge not so much on the objects ofour thoughts, on their propositional contents, but on what Kaplan calls the \"character,\" in this case the indexical type, of our thoughts. Kaplan too identifies \"the context sensitivity of character\" with what he calls \"the context sensitivity of mental states\" and remarks, \"Dare I call it ego orientation?\" (Kaplan 1989, 531).  \nNo, he should not dare. For it is not indexical thoughts that serve to orient an agent in his world. A picture that holds us captive portrays the index as a pointing finger, showing the direction of its referent from here, so that we may act from here regarding it. Internalized, the pointing finger is a pointing thought, guiding action towards its object. But, I will argue, first, it is not true for the general case that the relation an indexical or the interpreter of an indexical bears to the indexical's referent is a relation that needs to be taken account of during action. Second, conversely, it is not true for the general case that those relations of self to world that one must take into account in order to act in the world are relations of the sort that an indexical or the interpreter of an indexical bears to the indexical's referent. Third, it is no part of the job of an  \n~  \nWith the kind permission of the editors of Nous, this is a revised and expanded version of \"The Myth of the Essential Indexical,\"Nous 24.5 (1990) pp. 723-734. The substantive additions are mainly toward the end of the essay.  \n1 Dennett cites Castan˜eda 1966, 1967, 1968; Perry 1977, 1979; Kaplan 1989; and Lewis 1979. Another clear example is McGinn 1983. There are also clear gestures toward such a thesis, alas, in my (1984) .  \nindexical token to signify the relation either of itself to its referent or ofits interpreter to its referent. Fourth, conversely, inner signs that do signify relations between agent and world as needed for action are not as such indexical. Finally, if an agent employs a mental term to represent herself, this in principle cannot be a mental indexical: there can be no thought that has the (Kaplan-style) character of \"I.\" Nor are there thoughts with the character of either \"here\" or\"now.\" It is not ","cbCainEyvhYCkY09","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainEyvhYCkY09","pdf",180167,13,"English","# The Myth of the Essential Indexical\n## Thesis and critique of essential indexicals\n## Indexical orientation and psychological function\n## Adapting relations and character of indexical types","[{\"question\":\"What is the central thesis of the essay?\",\"answer\":\"Essential indexicals are essential in thought, but they are not indexical. Their importance comes from psychological function, not from indexical semantics.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author argue indexical thoughts do not guide action?\",\"answer\":\"The author contends that orientation toward action is not explained by taking indexical or interpreter-to-referent relations into account in the general case.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay explain what makes an indexical token refer to something?\",\"answer\":\"An indexical token lacks a constant referent; it gets a referent only in an appropriate context containing an “indexical adapting relation” that determines what the token indexes.\"}]","The Myth of the Essential Indexical | PDF",1789463629,33]