Logical Studies

Existential Commitment and Geach’s Puzzle

Document Type : Research

Authors

Kamran Ghayoomzadeh 1
Alireza Dastafshan 2

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Logic, Azarbaijan University of Tarbiat Moallem

2 Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30465/lsj.2020.5370
Abstract
The problem of existential commitment is how and to what extent we are committed to accept the existence of certain objects in the world and especially the objects we talk about because of our use of language. “Geach’s Puzzle” which is an interesting and famous problem in existential commitment induced by an anaphoric text is a general problem about the existential commitments of the third speaker (narrator) in a discourse with more than two speakers. The solution defended in this dissertation is that if the first two speakers speak of an object which didn’t initially exist, they have actually created it as an abstract mythical object. Now, the third speaker can commit himself to accept the existence of that object while reporting what those two speakers had said without any need to agree with the properties they had ascribed to that object. The object indeed exists, because it was created in a myth.

Keywords

existential commitment
mythical objects
Geach’s puzzle
1-Braun, D.,(2005), ‘Empty Names, Fictional Names, Mythical Names’, Noûs, Vol. 39, No. 4,pp. 596- 631.
2-Church, A.,(1950), ‘On Carnap’s Analysis of Statements of Assertion and Belief’, Analysis, Vol. 10, No 5,pp. 97-99.                                                                                             3-Donnellan, K. S.,(1966), ‘Reference and Definite Description’, in Philosophical Review, Vol. 75, No. 3, pp. 281-304.
4-Geach, P. T.,(1967),  ‘Intentional Identity’, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 64, No. 20, pp. 627-632.
5-Kaplan, D.,(1978), ‘Dthat’ Syntax and Semantics, New York: Academic Press, pp. 221-43.
6-Kripke, S.,(2013), Reference and Existence, Oxford University Press.
7-Quine, W. V.,(1960), Word and Object, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
8-Salmon, N.,(2002), ‘Mythical Objects’, reprinted in Metaphysics, Mathematics, and Meaning, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 91-107.
9-Salmon, N.,(2002), ‘Nonexistence’, Noûs, Vol. 32, No. 3, 277-319.
10-Van Inwagen, P.,(1977), ‘Creatures of Fiction’, American Philosophical Quarterly,Vol. 14, No. 4, 1977, pp. 299 – 308.
11-Van Inwagen, P.,(1983), ‘Fiction and Metaphysics’,Philosophy and Literature,Vol. 7, No. 1, 1983, pp. 67 – 77.
12- انوری، ح. و احمدی گیوی، ح.، (1394)، دستور زبان فارسی 2، ویرایش چهارم، انتشارات فاطمی

Home

Guide for Authors

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us