Proper name (philosophy)

A nominator ( m., " rename " from the Latin nominare ), also singular term or proper name is in the philosophy of language and in the predicate logic a term which refers to exactly one object. So called, for example, the expression " 1" exactly one object, the number 1 In contrast, a predicate or a predictor, phrase word or general term is a term that stands for a concept under which multiple objects ( or even none) fall can. An example would be the term " person " covered by the several people.

The proper name or name in the traditional linguistic sense is one thing, not only an object (eg: Müller, Meier, etc. ), it is therefore too far, does not include the other hand, all nominators, such as the labels, so it is at the same time too narrow. In logic, hence the portmanteau singular term is preferred in the philosophy of language one speaks of proper names, but in a restricted, technical sense. The names nominator and predictor are used mainly in the environment of the Erlanger constructivism.

Examples

In the sentence "Peter is happy " is " Peter" a nominator, its corresponding object, Peter himself, is ( by means of the predicator " is happy " ) awarded the property to be happy.

A nominator may occur in different forms:

• As a proper name ( "Peter" ) or as an individual constant (formally mostly represented by small letters: "a", "b", etc.)
• As an indicator or deictic reference ( " this chair here " )
• As labeling ( " the currently reigning Chancellor ").
• As a function of expression, that is, as an application of a functor on his hand, a nominator ( " the father of Hans ," applying " the father of ... " to " Hans ").
• As a class expression so as an application of the Klassenabstraktors to an " open set ", ie a set of free variables ( "of the people, the class ", formally { x | x is a man }).

All of these expressions have in common that they exactly one object ( they were actually like people, chairs or abstract as classes), respectively. ( In the labeling expressions this " uniqueness constraint " is not always met with this problem to address the so-called labeling theories, see the article identification. )

History

The difference between general and singular terms ( terms) already knew the traditional logic, but it was playing a lesser role, as in the syllogistic statements about single individuals were treated as universal propositions (that is, " Socrates is a man " was treated as " all Greeks are men" ).

Gottlob Frege, the founder of modern logic, different ( inter alia, in his essay, function and concept ) between saturated and unsaturated expressions. Proper names were saturated for him, one triggers a statement, such as " Peter is happy," a proper name out, you get an unsaturated expression, " ... Be Happy ", which denotes a phrase Frege, and, as with modern terminology predicate or predictor would called.

Saturated expressions, so the nominators, who after Frege always a denotation, that is, a subject which they are addressed. Since all statements are also saturated, they must also designate an object, in Frege, this is the truth value.

In addition to the denotation proper names have a meaning which he identified with the mode of presentation of the object in Frege. Thus, the number is 3 in the expression " 2 1 " otherwise given as in the phrase " 4-1 ". In contrast, Carnap later singular terms writes to individual concepts as intension.

In the development of formal logic, such as David Hilbert, the difference between saturated and unsaturated expressions was abandoned in part, and the terms of their functional role in the formal calculus identified (see Formal grammar).

The question of how the meaning of proper names is fixed, so how can it be ensured that they refer to exactly one object which is an issue in contemporary philosophy of language, such as Donald Davidson, Ruth Barcan Marcus or Saul Kripke (especially in his work name and necessity ).