Russell’s theory of descriptions 3
Inés Crespo
NYU Paris & IJN
[email protected]
8 March 2017
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
1/9
Plan for today
Russell’s theory of descriptions (cont.)
What’s next?
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
2/9
Discussion
• Last point on Monday:
“C (the father of Charles II)” means “It is not always false of x that x begat Charles
II; and that x meets C; and ‘if y begat Charles II, y is identical with x’ is always true
of y”.
• From this, it follows thats e.g. every proposition of the form
“C (the present king of France)” is false, for it means:
“It is not always false of x that
- x is the current monarch of the country whose calling code is +33;
- that x meets C;
- and ‘if y is the current monarch of the country whose calling code is +33, then
y is identical with x’ is always true of y”.
• According to R, to think that denP are meaningful by
themselves (as M or F did), you get into trouble.
• For Meinong, denP stand for an object. Some objects are
objects, although they don’t subsist.
Danger: infringments of the law of non-contradiction.
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
3/9
Discussion (cont.1)
• Russell calls Frege’s Sinn meaning (we call it sense) and
Bedeutung, denotation (we call it reference).
• Objections against Frege, the case of the empty names:
1. No denotation?
When we say “The king of Sweden is bald” we speak about Carl XVI Gustaf, the guy
about the denotation of the definite description, not about a sense.
But when we say “The king of France is bald” we are not talking about a guy, for
“The king of France” has no denotation.
If “The king of France” has no denotation, then it must be
nonsense. But this sentence isn’t nonsense, it is false. So
Frege’s analysis must be wrong.
Note that Frege would say that this sentence has no
denotation but it isn’t nonsense. (So in a way you could say
that R talks past Frege.)
2. Denotation, the null class?
Plainly artificial solution!
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
4/9
Discussion (cont.2)
• R’s way out is to deny that denP stand for sth.
This, he says, can deal with a few puzzles.
• Puzzle 1: Frege’s puzzle (reddux).
If it is true that Scott is the author of Waverley, we should expect that substituting
‘Scott’ for ‘the author of W’ in a proposition should leave the truth of the whole
proposition unchanged. But if we say “George wanted to know whether Scott was the
author of W” and proceed with the substitution, we get “George wanted to know
whether Scott was Scott”.
• Puzzle 2: By the law of excluded middle, a sentence like “The
king of France is bald” should be either true or false.
• Puzzle 3: How can “the difference between A and B” be
meaningful if there is no such thing as the difference between
A and B? The same goes for other true negative existential
claims, like “The golden unicorn does not exist.”
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
5/9
Discussion (cont.3)
• Puzzle 1: “Scott is the author of W” becomes “one and only
one entity wrote W, and Scott was identical with that one”.
• So in “George wants to know whether Scott is the author of
W”, once the reduction is effected “the author of W” is not a
constituent for which we could substitute Scott.
• This analysis assumes that “the author of W” has a secondary
occurrence in the sentence.
• One could make this replacement if “the author of W” has a
primary occurrence in the sentence.
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
6/9
What’s next?
Submission: HW#2 by Fri 10 Mar 23h59 or by Mon 13 Mar
23h59?
Mid-term exam: Mon 13 Mar or Wed 15 Mar?
If the mid-term is on Wed 15 Mar, then we can take some time on
Mon 13 Mar to keep on thinking about Russell and Frege, and if
time permits you can ask questions concerning Borges/Plato/FdS.
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
8/9
Contact
• E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
• Office hours: Mondays from 9h00 till 10h00, room 506.
• Course webpage: http://inescrespo.altervista.org/nyu.html
Inés Crespo | NYU Paris & IJN
PHILUA-85 Spring 2017 | Session 13
9/9