Since the 1960s, kripke has been a central figure in a number of fields related to mathematical logic, modal logic, philosophy of language. Jun, 2019 in this lecture, professor saul kripke takes the opportunity to revisit some of the more controversial points in his seminal work naming and necessity. The preface of 21 pages describes the genesis and background of the leading ideas of the monograph, and discusses a few common misunderstandings. In a part of lecture i not reprinted in martinich, he says. Recall that descriptivism about proper names is the view that there is a. Christopher hughes offers a careful exposition and critical analysis of kripkes central ideas about names, necessity, and identity, and in the process makes significant contributions to continuing debates about such topics as modality, essence, natural kinds, and.
In reading naming and necessity, it is clear that saul kripke stands in a similar position. Theoretical identities 116143 kripke thinks that theoretical identities of the sort at which science aims are a third source of necessary a posteriori truths. January 20, 19701 i hope that some people see some connection between the two topics in the title. Kripke on naming and necessity university of toronto. Saul kripke, in a series of classic writings of the 1960s and 1970s, changed the face of metaphysics and philosophy of language. Naming and necessity was mentioned as one of the eminent texts for this practice. On a derivation of the necessity of identity saul kripkes lecture identity and necessity 1971 begins with a short discussion of a formal derivation of a law of necessity of identity. It redirected philosophical attention to neglected questions of natural and metaphysical necessity and to the connections between these and theories of reference, in particular of. Why are we talking about names some of you may be surprised by the content of this lecture. The standard line about why naming and necessity was so important is that kripkes amazing idea that proper names are rigid designators i. Analogies between proper names and natural kind terms 2. This leads kripke to conclude that the sixth statement of the fregerussellinspired theories of naming must be false because it.
The first lecture provides a brief historical survey of the. The derivation has become rather well known, but perhaps not so well understood. He is widely credited with the discovery of possible world semantics for modal logic, a feat he accomplished at a young age. Although much of his work remains unpublished, several major essays have now appeared in print, most recently in his longawaited collection. Reference and existence, saul kripkes john locke lectures for 1973, can be read as a sequel to his classic naming and necessity. A term t is a rigid designator just in case in every possible world it designates the same object quoting from kripke, naming and necessity. To every name or designating expression x, there corresponds a cluster of properties, namely the family of those properties. Lecture notes introduction to philosophy of language. His early masterpiece, naming and necessity, reversed the pattern of two centuries of philosophizing about the necessary and the contingent. Lectures given to the princeton university philosophy colloquium. I will explain kripkes framework which includes possible worlds, rigid designators, and essential properties. Kripke if there is such a thing as essential reading in metaphysics or in philosophy of language, this is it.
Thus the phenomenon of rigidity casts no real doubt on the description theory of names. Kripke on the descriptive theory of names duration. We can then ask whether certain things might have been true of these objects 273. Fourth, in the wake of kripkes naming and necessity lectu res, david kaplan suggested t hat proper names were directly referential expressions whose propositional contribution was their referent. If not, anyway, such connections will be developed in the course of these talks. A conflation in freges notion of sense kripkes response to fregean theories. This leads kripke to conclude that the sixth statement of the fregerussellinspired theories of naming must be false because it makes specific reference to necessity. Lecture iii goes on to focus on two important further classes of such claims. Naming and necessity a conflation in freges notion of sense frege should be criticized for using the term sense in two senses. The cluster or the single description actually gives the meaning of the name 2. In these lectures, i will argue, intuitively, that proper names are. Naming and necessity, lecture ii kripkes critique of the. A great deal of the books brilliance lies in the astonishing simplicity of his solution to some of philosophys most fiendish puzzles and the ease with which he lectures reveals the powerful grasp he has on the issues he describes.
He claims there is an inherent problem in the fregean notion of sense. There we saw that we could give the following test for the rigidity of a term. Saul kripkes naming and necessity consists of revised transcriptions of three lectures given at princeton university in 1970. Saul kripke has been a major influence on analytic philosophy and allied fields for a halfcentury and more. Naming and necessity a return to mill kripke proposes a millian theory of names, according to which proper names dont have senses. Philosophy 5 lecture 07 kripkes naming and necessity. The series of lectures published as naming and necessity have been very in. Naming and necessity 3 the preface first, but that they return to it for clarification if necessary after they have read the main text. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Philosophy 5 lecture 07 kripkes naming and necessity i. If there is such a thing as essential reading in metaphysics or in philosophy of language, this is it. From kripkes naming and necessity michigan state university. Two description theories not distinguished by kripke dt of speakers denotation. Kripkes view about essential properties has implications for his views about language. A great deal of the books brilliance lies in the astonishing simplicity of his solution to some of philosophys most fiendish puzzles and the ease with which he lectures reveals the powerful grasp he. Ever since the publication of its original version, naming and necessity has had great and increasing influence. Find a summary of this and each chapter of naming and necessity. We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. Even though the description in some sense doesnt give the meaning of the name, it is what determines its reference, even though the meaning and descriptions arent synonymous. Naming and necessity, lecture ii kripkes critique of the description and kripkes own theory of names general theses of the description theory.
Saul kripke is yet another top logician of his time. References published on 15 may 2020 by manchester university press. It redirected philosophical attention to neglected questions of natural and metaphysical necessity and to the connections between these and theories of reference, in particular of naming, and of identity. In lecture i, kripke introduced the notion of rigid. This view is connected with certain theses about natural kind terms, and their similarity to proper names.
For he takes the sense of a designator to be its meaning. Kripke proposes a millian theory of names, according to which proper names don t have senses. Identifying the two, he supposes that both are given by. Aug 05, 2017 philosophy 5 lecture 07 kripkes naming and necessity i. A rigid designator t rigidly designates an object o just in case in every possible world it. In naming and necessity, kripke introduces the notion of rigid designators as a response to the debate in the philosophy of language concerning the reference of names. Kripkes critique of the description theory of names recap from his lecture i.
He is a distinguished professor of philosophy at the graduate center of the city university of new york and emeritus professor at princeton university. The third lecture is sadly poorly written and argued someone else already commented on it in this stream below, i agree with that reader. Philosophy of language u73126 lecture 2 proper names. Kripke ends lecture ii, and starts lecture iii, by discussing certain sorts of identity sentences as examples of the necessary a posteriori. Kripke is clear that this is not a situation in which water is not h 2 o but only in which the stuff called water turned out not to be h 2 o. Saul kripke begins the second lecture by reiterating the various theses of the fregerussell perspective and related cluster concept of naming. And as kripke recalled, his first lecture had several hundred of students attending, while his second and last lectures only had around twenty students. The present commentary attempts to improve understanding of it by. Even if we assume that the referent of a name like aristotle is fixed by means of a definite description, we cannot assume that aristotle must have the features given by that description. The preface is not written in such a way as to be completely selfcontained. Christopher hughes offers a careful exposition and critical analysis of kripke s central ideas about names, necessity, and identity, and in the process makes significant contributions to continuing debates about such topics as modality, essence, natural kinds, and. Kripke 2 as stated using the past tense, the condition wouldnt be circular, because one.
A critique of descriptivism recall that descriptivism about proper names is the view that there is a descriptive component to the meaning of proper names, which determines denotationreference. The book has four chapters, covering the main topics of kripkes epic naming and necessity nn. The transcript was brought out originally in 1972 in semantics of natural language, edited by donald davidson and. Naming and necessity, lecture i professor jeeloo liu saul kripke. And i really liked it, at least the first two lectures as well as parts of the addenda and the intro. Kripkes naming and necessity lecture two 10ptdescriptivism. Naming and necessity lecture 2 summary course hero. Even were that true, the name would not be synonymous with the descnption, but would be used to name an object which we pick out by the contingent fact that it satisfies a certain description.
So, according to frege, there is some sort of looseness or weakness in our language. Naming and necessity, lecture ii kripke s critique of the description and kripke s own theory of names general theses of the description theory. May 18, 2011 the standard line about why naming and necessity was so important is that kripkes amazing idea that proper names are rigid designators i. The modal argument 4849, 7177 in lecture i, kripke introduced the notion of rigid designation. Kripke lecture 3 if w is a world where aristotle never went into philosophy, d is true, e is false and f is true. Chapter summary for saul kripkes naming and necessity, lecture 2 summary. Furthermore, because of the use of tools involving reference and. On the other hand it does seem to support surprising conclusions about the modal status of identity statements.
Applied to our news story about homer, the device of rigid desig nators guarantees that if we are referring at all by the name homer. In the lectures kripke is responding to previous attempts to solve certain problems in the. In this lecture, professor saul kripke takes the opportunity to revisit some of the more controversial points in his seminal work naming and necessity. Kripke opposes the description theory of names and makes a counter proposal evans calls the causal theory.
Naming and necessity lecture 3 summary course hero. Kripke semantics for modal and related logics, published in several essays beginning in his teens his 1970 princeton lectures naming and necessity published in 1972 and 1980, which significantly restructured philosophy of language. As its title no doubt suggests, hughess is a book about kripke. But 2 is a necessary truth, and can be known a priori to be true.
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