The focus of this paper is the following question: How is the reference of a proper name determined in the actual world? I first introduce Kripke’s criticism of the traditional descriptive theories concerning the ref...The focus of this paper is the following question: How is the reference of a proper name determined in the actual world? I first introduce Kripke’s criticism of the traditional descriptive theories concerning the reference of proper names. Then I discuss Kripke’s own causal theory and the problems it faces. After presenting and analyzing Evans’s important work on this topic, I propose and defend a causal and descriptive solution to the above central question. I argue that this solution combines the merits of both the descriptive theory and the causal theory and it can solve all currently known difficulties faced by various theories of reference.展开更多
文摘The focus of this paper is the following question: How is the reference of a proper name determined in the actual world? I first introduce Kripke’s criticism of the traditional descriptive theories concerning the reference of proper names. Then I discuss Kripke’s own causal theory and the problems it faces. After presenting and analyzing Evans’s important work on this topic, I propose and defend a causal and descriptive solution to the above central question. I argue that this solution combines the merits of both the descriptive theory and the causal theory and it can solve all currently known difficulties faced by various theories of reference.
