Appendix

refutation of Kripke on rigid designators and essentialism

pp. 189-208

in: Nicholas Maxwell, The metaphysics of science and aim-oriented empiricism, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

This appendix is devoted to refuting the main claims made by Saul Kripke in his Naming and Necessity (1981). It is in two parts. Part I, first published in 2001, is concerned in the main to establish, in opposition to Kripke, that contingent identities with rigid designators are perfectly possible. Part II, written in 2018 for this book, sets out to demolish the basic argument of Naming and Necessity. I argue that Kripke’s key notion of rigid designator is not viable if Kripke’s version of essentialism is upheld.