Quote: a name must name something, otherwise it is not a name; in 'Did Homer exist?', Homer is an abbreviation for a definite description

Quotation

It is only of descriptions--definite or indefinite--that existence can be significantly asserted; for, if "a" is a name, it must name something: what does not name anything is not a name, and therefore if intended to be a name, is a symbol devoid of meaning, whereas a description, like "the present King of France," does not become incapable of occurring significantly merely on the ground that it describes nothing, the reason being that it is a complex symbol, of which the meaning is derived from that of its constituent symbols. And so, when we ask whether Homer existed, we are using the word "Homer" as an abbreviated description: we may replace it by (say) "the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey."   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: a description has significance even if it describes nothing; its meaning is derived from its constituent symbols

Related Topics

Topic: names as rigid designators (43 items)
Topic: meaning without reference (31 items)
Topic: names independent of objects (34 items)
Topic: names as abbreviations for descriptions (35 items)