How do language and thought connect to things in the world? John Hawthorne and David Manley offer an original and ambitious treatment of the semantic phenomenon of reference and the cognitive phenomenon of singular thought, leading to a new unified account of definite and indefinite descriptions, names, and demonstratives.

• Part I: Against acquaintance


• 1: Introduction: reference and singular thought


• 2: A defense of liberalism


• 3: Epistemic acquaintance


• Part II: Beyond acquaintance


• 4: From the specific to the singular


• 5: What 'the'?


• 6: Whither reference?


• Afterword


• Bibliography


• Index

John Hawthorne is Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Oxford, having previously been Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His books include Knowledge and Lotteries, Metaphysical Essays, and Relativism and Monadic Truth.
David Manley is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His papers have appeared in such journals as Mind, The Journal of Philosophy, Noûs, and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.