The Study Of Kripke’s Essentialism

Kripke is one of the important representatives of modern analytical philosophy.His essentialism is different from the traditional essentialism represented by Aristotle.He establishes the theory of essentialism on the basis of the concept of "possible world",so it is also called modern essentialism.In the background of Aristotle’s deep view of essence,and under the severe challenge of Quine negating modal logic and rejecting essentialism,Kripke established his essentialism.In addition,the possible world semantics created by Kripke also provides a complete prerequisite for the birth of its essentialism,clearing away the semantic obstacles for modal logic,and effectively responding to Quine’s criticism of essentialism.It can be said that Kripke’s gentle realistic view and his semantic interpretation of modal predicate logic are the starting point of his essentialism and its solid theoretical foundation.Specifically,Kripke’s essentialist theory can be divided into two parts,one is the individual essentialism doctrine,the other is the essentialist doctrine about natural species.He will be divided into living organisms and inanimate physical individuals,to their nature to their own origin and internal structure,human example demonstrate the nature of individual life is its origin is the combination of egg and sperm,in the table to demonstrate the essence of the physical individual is its internal structure is the material of the table.Will the nature of natural species word down to its internal structure,cripp cited gold,water,tiger,hot example,these examples can be classified as natural material species,natural organisms and natural phenomena,the nature of the three categories are demonstrated as its internal structure such as atomic structure and molecular movement,etc.Kripke’s doctrine of essentialism provides hope for the revival of essentialism and constructs a new path belonging to the modern essentialism.In addition,Kripke’s essentialist thought is also the philosophical foothold and cornerstone of his whole theoretical system.The causal historical naming theory constructed by Kripke to oppose the theory of description contains essentialist philosophical thoughts,in which the distinction between rigid indicators and non-rigid indicators reveals essentialism,while the transcendental incidental propositions and posterior inevitable propositions proposed later are examples of essentialism.Kripke’s argument of essentialism relies too much on theoretical intuition and natural science.With the development of The Times and the progress of science,the limitations of its theory are gradually revealed.Its limitations are manifested in the gradual relativity of the nature caused by the continuous development of science and the overemphasization of the origin,composition and internal structure and the possibility of ignoring other factors as the nature.In addition,cripp to the argument of natural species nature is still has advanced and rationality,which of the concept of "possible world" borrow broaden the traditional essence,and the construction of strict word theory and escort the internal structure of natural species nature,is still the optimal interpretation of the nature of natural species.