This chapter begins with criticism of ‘description’ and ‘causal’ theories—arguing that they should not be regarded as theories of reference. There then follows a deflationary account according to which our meaning what we do by ‘refers’ consists, roughly speaking, in our acceptance of the schema, ‘n’ (in quotes) refers to n (out of quotes)—and, more accurately, in our acceptance of ‘(x)(<n>refers to x ↔ n=x)’, where <n>is the prepositional constituent expressed by the singular term, “n”. Finally, there are accounts of the utility of this notion of reference and of the meanings of names.
Keywords: causal theory of reference, deflationary, description theory of reference, names, reference, singular terms, utility