Naming and Necessity -- A Series of Translations of Twentieth-Century Western Philosophy

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 properties 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 thereafter. This is the author's historical and causal naming theory. In the history of philosophy, it has always been believed that whatever is a priori is necessary, and whatever is a posteriori is contingent. However, the author points out that a priori is to necessity as epistemology is to metaphysics, not only existing a posteriori necessary knowledge but also a priori contingent knowledge. This is the author's theory of a priori contingency and a posteriori necessity, which poses a serious challenge to traditional theories.