Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
Names Introduced with the Help of Unsatisfied Sortal Predicates : Reply to Aranyosi
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Wahlberg, Hansson |
| Copyright Year | 2016 |
| Abstract | In this paper I answer Aranyosi’s (2009) criticism of my “Is Phosphorus Hesperus?” (2009). In the Abstract of his reply to my ”Is Phosphorus Hesperus?” (2009), Aranyosi writes “’Hesperus is Phosphorus’ has to be true, if it is true, regardless of which theory of persistence one is committed to” (2009, p. 223). By saying this he implies that I argued that the truth of the conditional “If ‘Hesperus is Phosphorus’ is true, then ‘Hesperus is Phosphorus’ is necessarily true” hinges on which theory of persistence is true. But this I did not do. Supposing that the names are rigid designators, surely the identity statement is necessarily true if it is true, regardless of which theory of persistence is true. 1 What I did argue was that the truth of the antecedent (i.e.“’Hesperus is Phosphorus’ is true”) can be questioned assuming the conjunction of (a) the perdurance theory of persistence and (b) the thesis of unrestricted mereological composition 2 : someone endorsing (a) and (b) may hold that the proper referent of “Hesperus” is the aggregate of the temporal parts of Venus which are visible in, and only in, the evening, and that the proper referent of 1 However, if the names are non-rigid designators, then the consequent may be false even if the antecedent is true (see Kripke, 1980, p. 3). 2 According to the perdurance theory of persistence, an entity perdures iff it persists by having distinct temporal parts at distinct times (see Lewis, 1986, p. 202). The thesis of unrestricted mereological composition says that whenever there are some things, no matter how disparate and unrelated, there is something composed of just those things (again see Lewis, 1986, p. 211). |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://portal.research.lu.se/ws/files/2132685/8676184.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/files/2132685/8676184.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
