Gale on Reference and Religious Experience

Abstract: Richard Gale, in On the Nature and Existence of God, offers several reasons why an "historical-cum-indexical" theory of reference cannot be appropriate in explaining how people refer to God. The present paper identifies five distinct lines of argument in Gale, attempts to clarify several important desiderata for a successful theory of reference, and argues that Gale fails to discharge the burden of proof he has assumed, leaving the most important features of Alston's "direct reference" theory untouched. Nevertheless, it is conceded that some consequences of Alston's theory are quite counter-intuitive. The paper therefore concludes with a consideration of two alternatives: either taking a hard, Alstonian line in conflict with people's linguistic intuitions, or striking a compromise with descriptivism along lines similar to those found in Gareth Evans's paper, "The Causal Theory of Names."