Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. x, 128 pages; 22 cm.

Summary

1. This book offers a new theory of proper names and a new view of the nature of necessity. It features analyses of the concept of a physical thing and the relation between the names of things and the things they name. It questions the prevalent view that names "refer to" or "denote" the things they name. Instead, it presents a theory of proper names, according to which names express certain special properties that the things they name exhibit. This theory leads to some important conclusions about whether things have any of their properties as a matter of necessity. This will be an important book for philosophers in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, though it will also interest linguists concerned with the semantics of natural language.

Series statement

1. Cambridge studies in philosophy

Uniform title

1. Cambridge studies in philosophy

Subject

1. Reference (Philosophy)
2. Names
3. Identity (Philosophical concept)
4. Essentialism (Philosophy)
5. Necessity (Philosophy)
6. Ontology
7. Modality (Logic)
8. names
9. identity
10. ontology (metaphysics)
11. Essenz
12. Ontologie
13. Philosophie
14. Referenz Linguistik
15. Modalität Linguistik
16. Eigennamen
17. Noodzakelijkheid

Contents

1. 1. Ontology. 1. Things. 2. Properties. 3. Possible worlds -- 2. Things and their parts -- 1. Introduction. 2. The theory M. 3. A formal version of M. 4. The theory M +. 5. Persistence versus temporal parts. 6. The boundaries of things. 7. An almost embarrassingly simple argument. 8. Statues and lumps of clay -- 3. Some properties of things. 1. Haecceities. 2. Singulary categorials. 3. Ostension. 4. A partial analysis -- 4. A theory of names. 1. The standard views. 2. A Kripke-style theory. 3. Ordinary proper names. 4. Hesperus and Phosphorus. 5. Frege and Superman. 6. Naming mereological sums. 7. Empty names -- 5. Necessity and essentialism. 1. Propositions. 2. Property entailment. 3. Necessity de dicto. 4. Necessity de re. 5. The essence of essentialism.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p.125-126) and index.