| Reference and Existence: The John Locke Lectures Contributor(s): Kripke, Saul A. (Author) |
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ISBN: 019992838X ISBN-13: 9780199928385 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $56.05 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2013 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Epistemology - Philosophy | Metaphysics |
| Dewey: 121.68 |
| LCCN: 2012038713 |
| Physical Information: 0.69" H x 5.83" W x 8.52" (0.67 lbs) 184 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Reference and Existence, Saul Kripke's John Locke Lectures for 1973, can be read as a sequel to his classic Naming and Necessity. It confronts important issues left open in that work -- among them, the semantics of proper names and natural kind terms as they occur in fiction and in myth; negative existential statements; the ontology of fiction and myth (whether it is true that fictional characters like Hamlet, or mythical kinds like bandersnatches, might have existed). In treating these questions, he makes a number of methodological observations that go beyond the framework of his earlier book -- including the striking claim that fiction cannot provide a test for theories of reference and naming. In addition, these lectures provide a glimpse into the transition to the pragmatics of singular reference that dominated his influential paper, Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference -- a paper that helped reorient linguistic and philosophical semantics. Some of the themes have been worked out in later writings by other philosophers -- many influenced by typescripts of the lectures in circulation -- but none have approached the careful, systematic treatment provided here. The virtuosity of Naming and Necessity -- the colloquial ease of the tone, the dazzling, on-the-spot formulations, the logical structure of the overall view gradually emerging over the course of the lectures -- is on display here as well. |
