Names and Context: A Use-Sensitive Philosophical Account

Dolf Rami's work explores the meaning and reference of proper names, addressing challenges and developing a contextualist account. He discusses Saul Kripke's contributions and proposes a pluralist version of the causal chain picture. He also presents a use-sensitive alternative based on a semantic comparison between names, pronouns, and demonstratives, covering popular contextualist accounts of names.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 18 May 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Dolf Rami's work on the meaning and reference of proper names has gained significant attention in contemporary debates. He provides an overview of the main challenges and develops a new contextualist account of names. The questions surrounding the use and semantic features of proper names are central to the philosophy of language. Rami explores Saul Kripke's main contributions to the debate and introduces two new ways to capture the rigidity of names, proposing a pluralist version of the causal chain picture. He also covers popular contextualist accounts of names, both indexical and variabilist, and presents a use-sensitive alternative based on a semantic comparison between names, pronouns, and demonstratives. Rami's approach is extended and applied to a wide variety of uses, including names in fiction, providing a comprehensive explanation of why we should interpret proper names as use-sensitive expressions.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350197220