Beyond Rigidity? Essentialist Predication and the Rigidity of General Terms

I offer a brief formal exploration of a certain natural extension of the notion of rigidity to predicates, the notion of an essentialist predicate. I show that, under reasonable assumptions, true "identification sentences" involving essentialist predicates (such as 'Cats are animals&...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mario Gómez-Torrente
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) 2018-12-01
Series:Crítica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://critica.filosoficas.unam.mx/index.php/critica/article/view/443
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Summary:I offer a brief formal exploration of a certain natural extension of the notion of rigidity to predicates, the notion of an essentialist predicate. I show that, under reasonable assumptions, true "identification sentences" involving essentialist predicates (such as 'Cats are animals') are necessary, and hence that the notion of essentiality is formally analogous in this respect to the notion of singular term rigidity.
ISSN:0011-1503
1870-4905