Rigid Designation, Direct Reference, and Modal Metaphysics
نویسنده
چکیده
(Nov/03 draft, forthcoming in " Pacific Philosophical Quarterly " , comments to [email protected]) abstract In this paper I argue that questions about the semantics of rigid designation are commonly and illicitly run together with distinct issues, such as questions about the metaphysics of essence and questions about the theoretical legitimacy of the possible-worlds framework. I discuss in depth two case studies of this phenomenon—the first concerns the relation between rigid designation and reference, the second concerns the application of the notion of rigidity to general terms. I end by drawing out some conclusions about the relations between rigid designation, semantic frameworks, reference, and essence.
منابع مشابه
Reference and Modality: a Theory of Intensions
The study of reference often leads to addressing fundamental issues in semantics, metaphysics and epistemology; this suggests that reference is closely linked to the three realms. The overall purpose of this study is to elucidate the structure of some of these links, through a close examination of the “mechanism” of reference. As in many other enquiries, considering the possible (i.e., the moda...
متن کاملPossible Worlds I: Modal Realism
It is difficult to wander far in contemporary metaphysics without bumping into talk of possible worlds. And reference to possible worlds is not confined to metaphysics. It can be found in contemporary epistemology and ethics, and has even found its way into linguistics and decision theory. But what are those possible worlds, the entities to which theorists in these disciplines all appeal? Call ...
متن کاملRigid Designation and Semantic Structure
Forthcoming in " Philosophers' Imprint " Comments to: [email protected] 1. the issue 'Rigid designation' is Kripke's name for a concept that has been in the air at least since the development of quantified modal logics: (a token of 1) a designator is rigid if and only if it designates the same individual in every possible world in which the individual exists. Two seminal conclusions for which Krip...
متن کاملMass Properties Identification of a Rigid Body Using Modal Analysis
In performing vibration analysis of the car engine on the engine support, it is necessary to know the mass properties of the engine including mass, position of the center of mass and mass inertia moments. Because the car engine has a relatively complex geometric shape and is composed of different components with different densities, determining its mass properties faces many challenges. There a...
متن کاملA General Theorem Prover for Quantified Modal Logics
The main contribution of this work is twofold. It presents a modular tableau calculus, in the free-variable style, treating the main domain variants of quantified modal logic and dealing with languages where rigid and non-rigid designation can coexist. The calculus uses, to this end, light and simple semantical annotations. Such a general proof-system results from the fusion into a unified fram...
متن کامل