Proper Names and Reference
Metasemantic Challenges and Epistemological Constraints
Buying pre-order items
Ebooks and Audiobook
You will receive an email with a download link for the ebook or audiobook on the publication date.
Payment
You will not be charged for pre-ordered books until they are available to be shipped. Pre-ordered ebooks will not be charged for until they are available for download.
Amending or cancelling your order
For orders that have not been shipped you can usually make changes to pre-orders up to 72 hours before the publishing date.
Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available
- Delivery and returns info
-
Free CA delivery on orders $40 or over
Description
What mechanisms determine the meaning of proper names? Drawing from semantic and metasemantic perspectives, this book offers a novel theory.
Names raise controversial issues in philosophy of language, epistemology, philosophy of mind and metaphysics. Stefano Pugnaghi explores The first part of the text focuses on the contemporary debates on names' meaning, discussing particularly the debates between predicativist and referentialist accounts of names and the one between constant and non-constant referentialist views.
Pugnaghi describes some challenges to a predicative account of names, defending instead a Millian account of names' meaning and offering a new way of conceiving the mechanisms through which names acquire such meaning. This approach to names' reference-fixing is inspired by the Kripkean picture but capable of capturing the freedom with which names are introduced.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Referentialism vs Predicativism
Chapter 2. Names and Context-Sensitivity
Chapter 3. Concluding Remarks: The Meaning of Proper Names
Part 2: The Metasemantics of Proper Names
Chapter 4. Metasemantic Inquiry and Names' Reference-Fixing
Chapter 5. An Idiolectal Metasemantic Account of Proper Names
Chapter 6. Introducing a Proper Name
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | Nov 12 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | 9798216366478 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Dimensions | 229 x 152 mm |
| Series | Philosophy of Language: Connections and Perspectives |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Related Titles
