A direct reference theory is a theory of meaning that claims that the meaning of an expression lies in what it points out in the world. It stands in contrast to mediated reference theories.
Read more about Direct Reference Theory: John Stuart Mill, Ruth Barcan Marcus, Saul Kripke
Famous quotes containing the words direct, reference and/or theory:
“No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It makes no sense to say what the objects of a theory are,
beyond saying how to interpret or reinterpret that theory in another.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)