Russell's Revenge: A Problem for Bivalent Fregean Theories of Descriptions

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 98 (4):636-652 (2017)
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Abstract

Fregean theories of descriptions as terms have to deal with improper descriptions. To save bivalence various proposals have been made that involve assigning referents to improper descriptions. While bivalence is indeed saved, there is a price to be paid. Instantiations of the same general scheme, viz. the one and only individual that is F and G is G, are not only allowed but even required to have different truth values.

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2016

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10.1111/papq.12142

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Jan Heylen
KU Leuven

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References found in this work

On Denoting.Bertrand Russell - 1905 - Mind 14 (56):479-493.
Uber Sinn und Bedeutung.Gottlob Frege - 1892 - Zeitschrift für Philosophie Und Philosophische Kritik 100 (1):25-50.
On referring.Peter F. Strawson - 1950 - Mind 59 (235):320-344.
Generalized quantifiers and natural language.John Barwise & Robin Cooper - 1981 - Linguistics and Philosophy 4 (2):159--219.

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