Nonspecificity

This chapter criticizes Quine’s classic discussion (from the 1950s) of “John wants a sloop”, which he claims is ambiguous between a specific and a nonspecific reading. By contrast, the negation test shows that attributions like this are not ambiguous, but simply nonspecific. Nonspecificity is extended from indefinite noun phrases to other expressions, including plurals. It is also extended from language to psychology, from the sentence “John wants a sloop” to what state John is in when wanting a sloop. There are no nonspecific houses or trees, or ordinary things more generally. But there are nonspecific intentional states, as opposed merely to nonspecific attributions of intentional states. A nonspecific state is one that involves the exercise of indefinite concepts. Both specific and nonspecific intentional states may be correctly ascribed nonspecifically.