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    Carmelics

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    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Empty names lack a content, according to the Millian-Russellian view.

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Fregean sense provides a level of meaning distinct from reference, allowing empty names to express a mode of presentation without denoting an object.
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    • 2.Sentences containing empty names like 'Sherlock Holmes is a detective' are cognitively meaningful and support genuine inferential relations, which requires some semantic content.
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    • 3.A theory of content that cannot account for the meaningfulness of fiction and mythology fails an adequacy condition that any serious semantic theory must meet.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Kripke's Millianism itself acknowledges that empty names like 'Sherlock Holmes' function as rigid designators in modal contexts, presupposing some semantic role beyond mere bearer-absence.
      ?

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    • 2.Pretense and make-believe theories (Walton, Evans) assign empty names a form of descriptive or fictional content grounded in narrative practice, not referential failure.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.The Millian-Russellian holds that the content of a name is its referent.
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    • 2.Empty names have no referent.
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