Talk:Naming and Necessity

Insane hair splitting

People begin using the name 'Jack the Ripper' to refer to the person responsible for the murder of five women in London. So, the name was fixed to its referent by a description. However, the person who carried out the murders might have been jailed for another crime and, thus, might never have had the property of murdering those women.

Either carrying out a murder differs from murdering, or being the murderer differs from having the property of being the murderer. Either way, it's not the everyday English language wherein explanations are explanatory. — MaxEnt 00:11, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

That section of the article is simply wrong, Kripke makes no such claim, in fact he concedes that "Jack the Ripper" is an example of a name where the reference could reasonably be said to be fixed by a description. Samatarou (talk) 01:16, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Descriptivist theory of names

Where did this term "descriptivist theory of names" come from? Kripke never once uses the term, he always says "description theory of names". If you think about it, a "descriptivist theory" can only be a theory advanced by a descriptivist, but what sort of theory would they advance? Not a descriptivist theory surely, as that creates a circular definition. In the context of these articles on naming, descriptivists are surely those who advocate a description theory of names, so that is the correct term. Samatarou (talk) 01:16, 22 October 2018 (UTC)