Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Mathematical Methods in Philosophy' and 'My Philosophical Development'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts

---

1 idea

5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / e. Empty names

6439	Names are meaningless unless there is an object which they designate [Russell]
	Full Idea: Unlike descriptions, names are meaningless unless there is an object which they designate.
	From: Bertrand Russell (My Philosophical Development [1959], Ch.14)
	A reaction: This interests Russell because of its ontological implications. If we reduce language to names, we can have a pure ontology of 'objects'. We need a system for saying whether a description names something - which is his theory of definite descriptions.