title: A Mental Files Approach to Delusional Misidentification.
abstract: I suggest that we can think of delusional misidentification in terms of systematic errors in the management of mental files. I begin by sketching the orthodox "bottom-up" aetiology of delusional misidentification. I suggest that the orthodox aetiology can be given a descriptivist or a singularist interpretation. I present three cases that a descriptivist interpretation needs to account for. I then introduce a singularist approach, one that is based on mental files, and show how it opens the way for different and potentially more plausible accounts of these three cases. I reflect on how this mental files approach can be viewed either as a supplement to the orthodox aetiology, or as suggesting an altogether different aetiology. I end by addressing a concern surrounding the explanatory power of mental files.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy, Durham University, 50 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HN UK.
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wilkinson