An Analysis Of Kripke’s Historical-Causal Theory Of Name

Name of the theory has been the central issue of the logicians andlinguists.Contemporary analytic philosophers have conducted in-depthresearch on this issue,Generating many new ideas and insights,Historicaland Causal Theory come into being.The representative of Historical and Causal Theory is Kripke.Hebelieves that the proper name has nomeaning only alleged. To solve theproblem that how to determine the name of something, Kripke puts forwardthe theory of the historic causality.He believes in a ceremony to be heldin the beginning named.Object can be determined by actually refers or themanner of description in the ceremony.Descriptive words involved here isnot synonymous with the name of the object, it’s justpeople are used tospecify the alleged object. After the name of the object identified,itspread in the community in accordance with the kind of historical causeand effect chain.After the theory of the historic causality puts forward, philosophersare much interested in it.Its philosophical value immediately arousedwidespread concern, resulting in a broad and far-reaching impact.Thispaper from the history of philosophy and possible world semanticsperspective researches the theory of the historic causality.I hope tomake an objective understanding and assessment through the exposition ofthe history of the causal theory of Kripke and reflect on the previouspoint of view. This article is divided into three main sections to explorethe theory.In the first part we introduce the background of historical causal theory of naming. The aim is to reveal to the relationship with thetraditional theory of description.In this part we introduce Frege andRussell’s Description Theory.They think that name both the meaning andreferred to, so established the principle of " meaning decides reference".Sale and Wittgenstein think that the meaning of the name could not helpa single descriptive words, but determined by a group or a cluster ofdescriptive words.So they establish the Descriptive Words Cluster Theory.Clarify the status and development process of the name of the theory inthe philosophy of language.However, the cluster theory of descriptivewords are changed in the range of the Description Theory, it willinevitably encounter new challenges. This laid the foundation for thehistorical causal naming theory.In the second part we describe the theory of the historiccausality.Possible world is the basis of the theory.It is the possiblestate of the world not the real presence. On the basis of possible worlds,Kripke puts forward the "strict instructions to the word" theory. Basedon the"strict instructions to the word" Kripke distinction between propernames and descriptive words. Kripke believes that the proper name has nomeaning, it is directly alleged that an object, not any propertiesattributed to this object. Specifically name the alleged object with theonly certainty. Descriptive words, different paper names, through thedescription of the characteristics of the object to refer to objects. Sowhen the object’s properties change,the allegations of the descriptivewords that will change.Kripke says specifically"strict instructions tothe word" descriptive words "non-strict directive’’.Based on the possibleworlds and strict directives,Kripke traditional Description Theorycriticism of the history of the name of the causal theory. Kripkecriticized the traditional Description Theory and proposed theHistorical-Causal Theory of Name. In the third part of the article,from the other perspectives ratherthan Kripke’s perspectives,the value and limitations of Kripke’s theoryare assessed to get some inspiration.Although the theory of the historiccausality has contributed much to the Philosophy of Language,this theoryalso has some limitations.For example it only focus on the essentialattribute of the object in the naming process.There are somedisruption,transfer and disappearance in the development of Historical-Causal Theory of Name.They are the serious flaw in his theory.