Naming and Necessity Lecture 2 [Henry Tran]

1. Agreed/Interesting Quote:

Whatever the merits of such a view may be as a view of history or the nature of great men, it does not seem that it should be trivially true on the basis of a theory of proper names. (Kripke 1972, p.75)

This quote means to me to say that, similarly as Kripke continues to explain, that historical things such as figure are attributed by the achievements/properties associated with them. However, just because we may attribute names with these properties such as: "Aristotle's most important properties consist in his philosophical work, and Hitler's in his murderous political role" (Kripke 1972, p.77) we might not know them by exact facts. To conclude, Kripke says: "an object could have had properties very different from its most striking actual properties, or from the properties we use to identify it."

I agreed (in some sense) with this quote because if I were to think of a merit that someone has done, such as Abraham Lincoln, my knowledge of the name and it's attributes are certainly not from first hand experience. We associate the attributes such that we believe them to be 'true' such that Abraham Lincoln the 16th president was a prominent figure against slavery. Lincoln could've been a vampire slayer hunter for all I know.

2. Disagree/Puzzling Quote:

"But still that's not a case in which Hesperus wasn't Phosphorus. For there couldn't have been such a case, given that Hesperus is Phosphorus." (Kripke 1972, p.103)

This quote was puzzling to me but I think it explains to me something about the understanding of names and the identity involving names. However it also seem counter intuitive comparing the first and second part of the quote. Thus why it was somewhat puzzling. (I think i'm confusing myself even more)

I was puzzled and disagreed with this part because the thought that "If Hesperus exists,
then Hesperus is Hesperus" is rather conditional such that the quote is somewhat posteriori and is related to observation rather than understanding. As something about :'If Hesperus exists then Hesperus is Phosphorus', it is counter intuitive to say the previous identity statement.