How Do Proper Names Really Work?: A Metadescriptive Version of the Cluster Theory

Claudio Ferreira-Costa

Published by De Gruyter 2023

How Do Proper Names Really Work?

A Metadescriptive Version of the Cluster Theory

Claudio Ferreira-Costa

Volume 88 in the series Philosophical Analysis

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110985740

Overview
Contents

About this book

For fifty years the philosophy of language has been experiencing a stalemating conflict between the old descriptive and internalist orthodoxy (advocated by philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Strawson, and Searle) and the new causal-referential and externalist orthodoxy (mainly endorsed by Kripke, Putnam, and Kaplan). Although the latter is dominant among specialists, the former retains a discomforting intuitive plausibility. The ultimate goal of this book is to overcome the stalemate by means of a non-naïve return to the old descriptivist-internalist orthodoxy. Concerning proper names, this means introducing second-order description-rules capable of systemizing descriptions of the proper name’s cluster to provide us with the right changeable conditions of satisfaction for its application. Such rules can explain how a proper name can become a rigid designator while remaining descriptive, disarming Kripke's and Donnellan’s main objections. In the last chapter, this new perspective is extended to indexicals in a discussion of David Kaplan’s and John Perry’s views, and of general terms, in a discussion of Hilary Putnam’s externalism.

Author / Editor information

Claudio Ferreira-Costa, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I The true history of descriptivism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
II Inconsistencies of Kripke’s quasi-referentialism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
III Metadescriptivism: Developing a theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
IV Metadescriptivism: Answering counterexamples Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
V Metadescriptivism: Identity statements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	194
VI Consequences for other terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	248

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars and students of philosophy, especially analytical philosophy
Pages
- Front matter: 12
- Main content: 251
Illustrations
- Tables: 4
Keywords: proper names; reference; meaning; language

eBook

Published: September 18, 2023
ISBN: 9783110985740

Hardcover

Published: October 4, 2023
ISBN: 9783110997163