Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T22:29:47.514Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Kripke’s sole route to the necessary a posteriori

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Erin Eaker*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, 1118C Skinner Building, College Park, MD20740, USA

Abstract

In ‘Kripke on epistemic and metaphysical possibility: two routes to the necessary a posteriori’, Scott Soames identifies two arguments for the existence of necessary a posteriori truths in Naming and Necessity (NN). He argues that Kripke’s second argument relies on either of two principles, each of which leads to contradiction. He also claims that it has led to ‘two-dimensionalist’ approaches to the necessary a posteriori which are fundamentally at odds with the insights about meaning and modality expressed in NN. I argue that the alleged second argument is not in NN. I identify the mistakes that lead to Soames’ misinterpretation.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Donnellan, Keith. 1966. “Reference and Definite Descriptions.” Philosophical Review 75: 281304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaker, Erin. 2012. “Donnellanon the Necessary A Posteriori.” In Having in Mind: The Philosophy of Keith Donnellan, edited by Almog, Joseph and Leonardi, Paolo, 5378. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaker, Erin. 2013. “Keeping Attitude Metaphysics Out of Attitude Ascription Semantics (and Vice Versa).” In New Essays on Belief: Constitution, Content, and Structure, edited by Nottelman, Nikolaj, 166187. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaker, Erin. MS. “How Not to Be Puzzled About Belief.”Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob. [1892] 1949. “On Sense and Nominatum.” Translated by Feigl, Herbert. In Readings in Philosophical Analysis, edited by Feigl, Herbert and Sellars, Wilfrid. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Jeshion, Robin, ed. 2010. New Essays on Singular Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, David. 1968. “Quantifying In.” Synthese 19: 178214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kripke, Saul. [1971] 2008. “Identity and Necessity.” Reprinted In Metaphysics: The Big Questions, edited by van Inwagen, Peter and Zimmerman, Dean. 2nd ed., 519543. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kripke, Saul. [1979] 1988. “A Puzzle About Belief.” Reprinted In Propositions and Attitudes, edited by Salmon, Nathan and Soames, Scott, 102148. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kripke, Saul. 1980. Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Soames, Scott. 2004. “Knowledge of Manifest Natural Kinds.” Facta Philosophica 6: 159181.Google Scholar
Soames, Scott. 2006. “The Philosophical Significance of the Kripkean Necessary Aposteriori.” Philosophical Issues 16: 288309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soames, Scott. 2011. “Kripke on Epistemic and Metaphysical Possibility: Two Routes to the Necessary A Posteriori.” In Saul Kripke, edited by Berger, Alan, 7899. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar