Rigid Designation, Identity, and Necessity for Property Terms in Language

FAIN: FB-51618-05

Joseph F. LaPorte
Hope College (Holland, MI 49423-3663)

This project is an articulation and defense of the position that terms for properties like ‘H2O’ and ‘courageous’ are rigid designators just as terms for concrete objects like ‘George W. Bush’ are, though there is a great deal of controversy about applying the notion of rigidity to property terms and there is little controversy about applying the notion to terms for concrete objects. I argue that the philosophical significance of applying rigidity to property terms is substantial, as is the significance of applying rigidity to terms for concrete objects. I discuss interesting consequences of property terms’ rigidity for identity statements that lie at the center of current debates over the nature of mind.