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Single Idea 18887

[filed under theme 19. Language / B. Reference / 3. Direct Reference / a. Direct reference ]

Full Idea

The paradigm of a nondescriptional, directly referential, singular term is an individual variable. …The denotation of a variable… is semantically determined directly by the assignment of values.

Gist of Idea

The perfect case of direct reference is a variable which has been assigned a value

Source

Nathan Salmon (Reference and Essence (1st edn) [1981], 1.1.2)

Book Ref

Salmon,Nathan: 'Reference and Essence (2nd ed)' [Prometheus 2005], p.16

A Reaction

This cuts both ways. Maybe we are muddling ordinary reference with the simplicities of logical assignments, or maybe we make logical assignments because that is the natural way our linguistic thinking works.

Related Idea

Idea 15593 Variables can be viewed as special terms - functions taking assignments into individuals [Fine,K]

The 35 ideas from Nathan Salmon

14667 System B has not been justified as fallacy-free for reasoning on what might have been [Salmon,N]
14668 In B it seems logically possible to have both p true and p is necessarily possibly false [Salmon,N]
14669 For metaphysics, T may be the only correct system of modal logic [Salmon,N]
14670 Metaphysical (alethic) modal logic concerns simple necessity and possibility (not physical, epistemic..) [Salmon,N]
14671 What is necessary is not always necessarily necessary, so S4 is fallacious [Salmon,N]
14672 Possible worlds are maximal abstract ways that things might have been [Salmon,N]
14674 Impossible worlds are also ways for things to be [Salmon,N]
14675 Possible worlds just have to be 'maximal', but they don't have to be consistent [Salmon,N]
14673 You can't define worlds as sets of propositions, and then define propositions using worlds [Salmon,N]
14676 Nomological necessity is expressed with intransitive relations in modal semantics [Salmon,N]
14678 Any property is attached to anything in some possible world, so I am a radical anti-essentialist [Salmon,N]
14677 Metaphysical necessity is said to be unrestricted necessity, true in every world whatsoever [Salmon,N]
14679 Bizarre identities are logically but not metaphysically possible, so metaphysical modality is restricted [Salmon,N]
14680 Logical possibility contains metaphysical possibility, which contains nomological possibility [Salmon,N]
14681 Logical necessity is free of constraints, and may accommodate all of S5 logic [Salmon,N]
14682 Denial of impossible worlds involves two different confusions [Salmon,N]
14687 Without impossible worlds, how things might have been is the only way for things to be [Salmon,N]
14683 Possible worlds rely on what might have been, so they can' be used to define or analyse modality [Salmon,N]
14689 Necessity and possibility are not just necessity and possibility according to the actual world [Salmon,N]
14685 Metaphysical necessity is NOT truth in all (unrestricted) worlds; necessity comes first, and is restricted [Salmon,N]
14690 In the S5 account, nested modalities may be unseen, but they are still there [Salmon,N]
14688 Without impossible worlds, the unrestricted modality that is metaphysical has S5 logic [Salmon,N]
14686 S5 modal logic ignores accessibility altogether [Salmon,N]
14684 A world is 'accessible' to another iff the first is possible according to the second [Salmon,N]
14692 System B implies that possibly-being-realized is an essential property of the world [Salmon,N]
14691 S5 believers say that-things-might-have-been-that-way is essential to ways things might have been [Salmon,N]
14693 The unsatisfactory counterpart-theory allows the retention of S5 [Salmon,N]
18885 Kripke and Putnam made false claims that direct reference implies essentialism [Salmon,N]
14742 It can't be indeterminate whether x and y are identical; if x,y is indeterminate, then it isn't x,x [Salmon,N]
18886 Frege's 'sense' solves four tricky puzzles [Salmon,N]
18887 The perfect case of direct reference is a variable which has been assigned a value [Salmon,N]
14627 S4, and therefore S5, are invalid for metaphysical modality [Salmon,N, by Williamson]
18888 Essentialism says some properties must be possessed, if a thing is to exist [Salmon,N]
18889 Ostensive definitions needn't involve pointing, but must refer to something specific [Salmon,N]
18891 Nothing in the direct theory of reference blocks anti-essentialism; water structure might have been different [Salmon,N]