Names Are Variables

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10692575
AutoresAnders J Schoubye (Stockholm University, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume129
Fascículo1
Páginas53-94
Data de publicação2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Philosophical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470
EditoraDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00318108-7890468
OpenAlexW2998851181
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas41

MILLIANISM and DESCRIPTIVISM are without question the two most prominent views with respect to the semantics of proper names. However, debates between MILLIANS and DESCRIPTIVISTS have tended to focus on a fairly narrow set of linguistic data and an equally narrow set of problems, mainly how to solve with Frege's puzzle and how to guarantee rigidity. In this article, the author focuses on a set of data that has been given less attention in these debates—namely, so-called predicative uses, bound uses, and shifted uses of names. The author first shows that these data points seem to favor a DESCRIPTIVIST view over a MILLIAN view, but the author then introduces an alternative view of names that not only provides a simple and elegant way of dealing with the data, but also retains rigidity without becoming subject to the problems raised by Frege's puzzle. This is the view that names are variables, also called VARIABILISM

Analytic philosophy · Contemporary philosophy · Epistemology · Focus (optics) · Linguistics · Predicative expression · Proper noun · Rigidity (electromagnetism) · Semantics (computer science) · Set (abstract data type) · Simple (philosophy) · Subject (documents) · Computer Science · Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation