TITLE:
Rigid Designators and Descriptivism
AUTHORS:
Yu Zhang
KEYWORDS:
Rigid Designators, Descriptivism, Weak Essentialism, Truth Value
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.2,
February
22,
2023
ABSTRACT: Kripke distinguishes necessity and priority as two different categories:
priority is a notion of epistemology, while necessity is a notion of
metaphysics. Based on this fundamental argument, Kripke objects to
Descriptivism, which takes certain properties as the criteria of identity
across all possible worlds, and he argues for the legitimacy of a posteriori
necessary truths. Kripke also criticizes Russell’s methods for dealing with
empty descriptions, and he puts forward a modal world to explain the rigidity
of proper names. However, the concept of
rigid designation faces some challenges, including Kripke admitting to weak essentialism
when he rejects transworld identification, and the fact that the truth value of
a sentence containing a rigid designator may change.