Ontology, Modality and the Fallacy of Reference

Questions the prevalent view that names 'refer to' or 'denote' the things they name.

Michael Jubien (Author)

9780521108577, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 April 2009

144 pages
21.6 x 14 x 0.9 cm, 0.19 kg

This is a book about the concept of a physical thing and about how the names of things relate to the things they name. It questions the prevalent view that names 'refer to' or 'denote' the things they name. Instead it presents a new theory of proper names, according to which names express certain special properties that the things they name exhibit. This theory leads to some important conclusions about whether things have any of their properties as a matter of necessity. This will be an important book for philosophers in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, though it will also interest linguists concerned with the semantics of natural language.

Preface
1. Ontology
2. Things and their parts
3. Some properties of things
4. A theory of names
5. Necessity and essentialism
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]