Single Idea 12231

[catalogued under 19. Language / B. Reference / 4. Descriptive Reference / a. Sense and reference]

Full Idea

It takes, over and above the possession of sense, the truth of relevant contexts to ensure reference.

Gist of Idea

Reference needs truth as well as sense

Source

B Hale / C Wright (The Metaontology of Abstraction [2009], §9)

Book Reference

'Metametaphysics', ed/tr. Chalmers/Manley/Wasserman [OUP 2009], p.208


A Reaction

Reference purely through sense was discredited by Kripke. The present idea challenges Kripke's baptismal realist approach. How do you 'baptise' an abstract object? But isn't reference needed prior to the establishment of truth?