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Essentialism and the Theory of Direct Reference
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JP Smit
Published/Copyright:
March 19, 2010
Abstract
A striking feature of contemporary thought, mainly due to the Kripke-Putnam theory of reference, is the rehabilitation of the notion of ‘essence’. Salmon (Reference and Essence, Blackwell Press, 1982) has convincingly argued that this revival of essentialism is completely unjustified. This paper tries to determine why, if this is so unjustified, essentialism and reference became entangled. It is argued that this is due to the ‘instance-to-kind’ logic of the determination of reference used by the new theory of reference. It is also argued that such theories that try to avoid essentialist commitments can do so, but only at a cost of sacrificing some basic virtues of the new theory of reference.
Published Online: 2010-03-19
Published in Print: 2009-May
© Philosophia Press 2009
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Articles in the same Issue
- Wittgensteins Traum von der Klarheit der Sprache
- Sharing my Body. Personal Identity and Individuation
- Two Sorts of Dualism. McDowell's Oscillation Between a Transcendental and a Metaphysical Conception of Reason and Nature
- Can Things Endure in Tenseless Time
- Intentions and Compositionality
- Intuitvely Assessed Reasonableness as a Criterion of Validity in Empathetic Understanding
- Essentialism and the Theory of Direct Reference
