On Kripke’s Theory Of Name

Kripke is a famous philosopher and logician, he presented Casual-Historical Theory ofName based on theory of possible worlds and theory of essence, which was against traditionaltheory of name. The traditional theory of name was put forward by Frege and Russell, whichholds that a name has a sense and the reference of a name is determined by one description ora cluster of descriptions. However, Kripke thought that a name had no sense but the functionof naming, while a description could only had the function of describing. He insisted that aname was connected with its reference through a causal-historical chain and not by its sense.Kripke differentiated a priori truths and necessary truths on the basis ofCasual-Historical Theory of Name. The notion of prioricity is a concept of epistemology,nevertheless the notion of necessity is a concept of metaphysics, based on which Kripke putforward contingent a priori propositions and necessary a posteriori propositions. Kripke’sCasual-Historical Theory of Name is a challenge to the traditional theory of name, and hisdistinction between a priori truths and necessary truths has aroused extensive debates inphilosophy, and greatly contributed to the development of contemporary philosophy oflanguage.