Definite description

As markings, certain or definite descriptions (English ( definite ) descriptions ), are referred to in the philosophy of language expressions of the form " of / / the A".

Examples

  • The first man on the moon
  • The highest mountain in the world

These two expressions satisfy the so-called " Einzigkeitsbedingung " which we think is always connected with markings: there is exactly one A, in the example: just a first man on the moon, just a highest mountain in the world.

The Einzigkeitsbedingung itself can again be analyzed as a conjunction of two conditions:

  • Existence: there is at least one A
  • Uniqueness: there is at most one A

The Einzigkeitsbedingung does not need to be met at each marking. Examples of such empty labels are known as:

This violated the term " the present King of France ", the condition of existence, because there is currently no king in France, and the term " the author of Principia Mathematica " the uniqueness condition, because there is not only an author of this work, but two ( Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead ).

In the philosophy of language literature, there are quite a number of labeling theories that deal mainly with the case of non-performed Einzigkeitsbedingung. If these theories in a formalized form, it (hence iota - operator) to use as a marking operator usually an inverted small iota:

Should be read as: " the one x for which F ( x) is true ".

Labeling theories

Frege

Gottlob Frege is concerned in his essay " On Sense and Reference " to the problem of labeling. For him, the fullness of Einzigkeitsbedingung is a prerequisite for both the truth and the falsehood of a sentence with a label. The sentence " The present king of France is bald " would thus be neither true nor false for Frege. Frege by the fact that it is possible to form blank labels, a " imperfection of language." For the formal languages ​​of logic and mathematics, he requested that it should be impossible to form empty identifications by, for example, specify that a label " A ", which is not exactly an A are on a pre-determined object should, for example, the number 0 point. It is thus constrained to Einzigkeitsbedingung ultimately always fulfilled.

Russell

Bertrand Russell is a slightly different way: a sentence must like him In

A logic analysis are assigned, wherein the label print is no longer occurs. His proposal for an analysis is:

Unlike Frege, who described a set with an empty label as neither true nor false, for Russell such a sentence is therefore simply wrong. The negation of the above theorem, namely the set

However, is ambiguous for Russell. It can mean:

Or

The first of these sets is also wrong, but the second is true. Sets with an empty marking can thus after Russell may even be true.

Strawson

Peter F. Strawson criticized Russell to the effect that it would like its analysis with a set of

Alleging, among other things, that there is exactly one king of France. According to Strawson, this is not an assertion but a presupposition. That it is a condition that must be met before the sentence is at all meaningful. The same is true according to Strawson also for the denial:

Again, the Einzigkeitsbedingung must be met in order for it to be a meaningful sentence. Strawson's theory will thus reflect the Frege.

Logical conjunction Ursula Wolf Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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