Putnam believes that natural-kind words (like names) are indexical; If I were to make a statement about "water" I may be making a statement similar to the water around here (pg 710). I feel like this interpretation might be hard to apply to non-existent entities or fictional characters; a reference to a fictional entity does not seem to be dependent on context. If I were to say Harry Potter, would I be saying something similar to the Harry Potter around here/by here/near here/at this time?
So, my question relates to my confusion about how non-existent entities are considered. Can I make references to non-existent entities, and are the names of these non-existent entities indexical as well?
Addressing your point of disagreement, maybe Putnam is saying that only the initial baptism of water need to refer to the "water around here", such that any further use of water would refer to the original baptism when someone pointed to water and said, "thou shalt be called 'water'". If that were the case, then statements referring to Harry Potter and/or other fictional characters wouldn't matter because either a) there was no initial grasping of an object and thus no baptism, or b) any subsequent reference to Harry Potter would refer to the original usage of Harry Potter made by J.K. Rowling in which she pointed to her mental state and said, 'Harry Potter'. Of course this then goes against his claim about meaning not being in the head, but maybe Harry Potter is just an amalgamation of other words and meanings, and that by pointing to 'Harry Potter' in the head, you are actually pointing to multiple external objects outside of the head through a causal chain, by which the word 'Harry Potter' actually gets its meaning. I don't know.
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