CUN Journal

Abstract

Descriptivist theories of proper names, originated by Bertrand Russell, hold that the uniqueness of names lies in their descriptive contents. What this means is that distinctive descriptive qualities identify the referents of names. The main criticism leveled against these theories is that proper names are not semantically equivalent to the singular definitive descriptions associated with them. It is in reaction to this shortfall and other flaws of the descriptivist theories that Saul Kripke introduced his causal theory of naming. He accepts that the descriptions of a referent helps in reference fixing but denies descriptive theories considering that it is still possible to refer to individuals whose uniquely identifying descriptions we do not have.

Again, he says that some uniquely descriptive qualities could be wrongly applied to a person and that names could be used to speak hypothetically with reference to what may have happened to someone with the result that a name functions as a rigid designator whereas a definite description cannot be used in the same manner. Kripke holds that names such as logical terms, proper names and natural kind terms are given to their referents through “dubbing” or “initial baptism” at a point and that a causal chain passes from those who first observed the naming to those who would hear or use those names. This paper examines Kripke’s theory of naming and reference in line with those of the descriptivists’ and those of the proponents of hybrid theories. It concludes that the causal theories of naming are enshrined in the descriptivist theories and that the distinctive descriptive qualities associated with proper names are always implied when a referent comes to mind and that those qualities do not have to be semantically equivalent to a referent for the latter to be perceived in its unique or singular nature.

Again, without undermining some pertinent issues raised by Kripke in connection with the importance of a chain of link between dubbing and the use of names, this article observes the need for further development of the reference theories, especially the causal reference theories, considering that such effort would be of immense benefit to those philosophical fields that border on language.