Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
Statues, Lumps, and Identity Public Deposited
Downloadable Content
Download PDF
https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/jd472w71f
- Abstract
- In his 1975 article “Contingent Identity,” Allan Gibbard purportedly shows that not all identity statements containing proper names are necessarily true. The thrust of his argument comes from a clever statue-and-lump case. Specifically, Gibbard claims that two proper names that refer to identical objects could have referred to distinct objects. In my thesis I argue that the postulation of contingent identity immediately presents one with a contradiction—specifically, one where identity statements containing proper names are both necessarily true (i.e. true in all possible worlds) and yet also fail to be true in some possible world W. Furthermore, I argue that the proponent of contingent identity conflates an object with the properties used to fix the reference of a designator of the object. Ultimately, I show that upholding a Kripkean notion of naming and reference allows one to uphold the necessity of identity in light of Gibbard’s statue-and-lump case.
- Creator
- Date Issued
- 2012
- Academic Affiliation
- Advisor
- Committee Member
- Degree Grantor
- Commencement Year
- Subject
- Last Modified
- 2019-11-17
- Resource Type
- Rights Statement
- Language
Relationships
Items
Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Visibility | Actions |
---|---|---|---|---|
statuesLumpsAndIdentity.pdf | 2019-11-17 | Public | Download |