In
modal logic and the
philosophy of language
In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, the ...
, a vivid designator is a term which is ''believed'' to designate the same thing in all
possible world
A possible world is a complete and consistent way the world is or could have been. Possible worlds are widely used as a formal device in logic, philosophy, and linguistics in order to provide a semantics for intensional and modal logic. Their ...
s
[Quine, W.V.O., ''Quintessence: Intensions Revisited'', 2004, pp. 356–357] and nothing else where such an object does not exist in a possible world. It is the analogue, in the sense of believing, of a
rigid designator
In modal logic and the philosophy of language, a term is said to be a rigid designator or absolute substantial term when it designates (picks out, denotes, refers to) the same thing in ''all possible worlds'' in which that thing exists. A designa ...
, which ''is'' (
refers to) the same in all possible worlds, rather than is just ''believed'' to be so.
Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century ...
credits
David Kaplan (who in turn credits
Montgomery Furth) for the term "vivid designator" in his 1977 paper "Intensions Revisited". He examines the separation between
''de re'' and ''de dicto'' and does away with ''de re'' statements, because ''de re'' statements can only work for names that are used
referentially. In fact, both
rigid designators
In modal logic and the philosophy of language, a term is said to be a rigid designator or absolute substantial term when it designates (picks out, denotes, refers to) the same thing in ''all possible worlds'' in which that thing exists. A designat ...
and vivid designators are similarly dependent on context and empty otherwise. The same is true of the whole
quantified modal logic of necessity because it collapses if
essence
Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...
is withdrawn.
[Quine, W.V.O., ''Quintessence: Intensions Revisited'', 2004, pp. 356–357.]
See also
*''
Naming and Necessity
''Naming and Necessity'' is a 1980 book with the transcript of three lectures, given by the philosopher Saul Kripke, at Princeton University in 1970, in which he dealt with the debates of proper names in the philosophy of language. The transcript ...
''
*
Rigid designator
In modal logic and the philosophy of language, a term is said to be a rigid designator or absolute substantial term when it designates (picks out, denotes, refers to) the same thing in ''all possible worlds'' in which that thing exists. A designa ...
*
Non-rigid designator
*
Scientific essentialism
Scientific essentialism, a view espoused by Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam, maintains that there exist essential properties that objects possess (or instantiate) necessarily. In other words, having such and such essential properties is a necessary ...
References
Possible world
Philosophy of language
Semantics
Formal semantics (natural language)
{{formal semantics
philo-stub