Meta-linguistic Descriptivism and the Opacity of Quotation

Acta Analytica 29 (4):413-426 (2014)
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Abstract

The paper unfolds a non-modal problem for (moderate) meta-linguistic descriptivism, the thesis that the meaning of a proper name (e.g. ‘Aristotle’) is given by a meta-linguistic description of a certain type (e.g. ‘the bearer of “Aristotle”’). According to this theory, if ⌜α⌝ is a proper name, it is a sufficient condition for the name’s being significant that the description ⌜the bearer of ⌜α⌝⌝ is significant. However, a quotational expression may be significant even when the expression quoted is not. Therefore, proper names and their corresponding descriptions cannot be synonymous, and the corresponding descriptions cannot be viewed as giving the meanings of proper names. So, even if it was immune to Kripke-style modal criticisms, moderate meta-linguistic descriptivism would still seem to founder on the rocks of the opacity of quotation.

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Author's Profile

Michael Oliva Córdoba
Universität Hamburg

Citations of this work

Descriptivism Without Quotation.Dirk Franken - 2020 - Topoi 39 (2):367-379.

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References found in this work

Naming and Necessity: Lectures Given to the Princeton University Philosophy Colloquium.Saul A. Kripke - 1980 - Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Edited by Darragh Byrne & Max Kölbel.
From a Logical Point of View.Willard Van Orman Quine - 1953 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Thought and reference.Kent Bach - 1987 - New York: Clarendon Press.
Proper names.John R. Searle - 1958 - Mind 67 (266):166-173.
Sense and reference.Gottlob Frege - 1948 - Philosophical Review 57 (3):209-230.

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