Intentionalism, contextualism and abstract demonstrations

Since the rise of the semantics for demonstratives (mainly influenced by Kaplan’s classic “Demonstratives” (1989)), most scholars have focused on perceptual demonstrations. In this paper, we want to explore the possibility of demonstrations of abstract entities (events, mathematical objects, etc.). Since there is no visual (or any form of sensory) presentation of abstract entities, this enterprise depends on either demonstrations being not the decisive element fixing the reference of demonstratives (a view that Kaplan himself would later embrace) or on there being demonstrations that are not perceptual. We shall try to motivate the latter alternative.