Naming and Necessity

Author: (USA) Saul Kripke
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: The author, Saul Kripke, is a renowned contemporary American logician and philosopher, one of the founders of modal logic semantics. This book is his masterpiece, and the two new theories proposed in it sparked a decade-long debate in Western analytical philosophy. How are things named? It depends on the origin and history of the name, not on the accidental characteristics of the named object. Churchill was named "Churchill" not because of his various characteristics, but because of the naming by his parents and the historical chain of transmission established by how others called him. This is the author's historical and causal naming theory. Historically in the history of philosophy, it has been believed that whatever is a priori is necessary, and whatever is a posteriori is accidental. However, the author points out that a priori is to necessity as epistemology is to metaphysics—there are not only a posteriori necessary knowledge but also a priori accidental knowledge. This is the author's theory of a priori accident and a posteriori necessity, which poses a serious challenge to traditional theories.