Meaning and Informativeness

ABSTRACT Michael Devitt holds that the causal mode of reference of a proper name is its meaning because, given its role in explaining behaviour, it is the sort of property that should motivate our theoretical interest in meanings. Since this requires that if a proper name has a certain meaning, then the speaker (tacitly) knows that it does, it is at odds with Devitt's claim that the typical speaker knows nothing about causal modes of reference (meanings). In this paper, I give reasons for adopting the former view, part of which is that the informativeness of identity statements featuring proper names indicates a meaning difference, contrary to what Devitt would have us believe.