Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Philosophy of Language' and 'Reference and Modality'

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3 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / b. Names as descriptive

10925	Failure of substitutivity shows that a personal name is not purely referential [Quine]
	Full Idea: Failure of substitutivity shows that the occurrence of a personal name is not purely referential.
	From: Willard Quine (Reference and Modality [1953], §1)
	A reaction: I don't think I understand the notion of a name being 'purely' referential, as if it somehow ceased to be a word, and was completely transparent to the named object.

5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 2. Descriptions / a. Descriptions

15158	Indefinite descriptions are quantificational in subject position, but not in predicate position [Soames]
	Full Idea: The indefinite description in 'A man will meet you' is naturally treated as quantificational, but an occurrence in predicative position, in 'Jones is not a philosopher', doesn't have a natural quantificational counterpart.
	From: Scott Soames (Philosophy of Language [2010], 1.23)

5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 2. Descriptions / c. Theory of definite descriptions

15157	Recognising the definite description 'the man' as a quantifier phrase, not a singular term, is a real insight [Soames]
	Full Idea: Recognising the definite description 'the man' as a quantifier phrase, rather than a singular term, is a real insight.
	From: Scott Soames (Philosophy of Language [2010], 1.22)
	A reaction: 'Would the man who threw the stone come forward' seems like a different usage from 'would the man in the black hat come forward'.