SOME REMARKS ON PERRY’S REFLEXIVE CONTENT AND COGNITIVE SIGNIFICANCE

Abstract

In this paper I present and discuss the solution offered by John Perry to Frege’s Puzzle in terms of the reflexive content of utterances. I first discuss his purported solution for the indexical version of the Puzzle, and argue that reflexive content cannot explain the triviality of some utterances. Hence, it is not the sort of thing that accounts for co­­gnitive significance adequately. I then discuss Perry’s solution for the Puzzle as arising for proper names. I argue that, even if reflexive content does explain cognitive significance in this case, it does not do so in terms of the meaning of expressions, as Perry originally intended.