Croatian Journal of Philosophy

Volume 13, Issue 1, 2013

Osamu Kiritani
Pages 93-98

Naming and Necessity From a Functional Point of View

The aim of this paper is to develop a new connection between naming and necessity. I argue that Kripke’s historical account of naming presupposes the functional necessity of naming. My argument appeals to the etiological notion of function, which can be thought to capture the necessity of functionality in historical terms. It is shown that the historical account of naming entails all conditions in an etiological defi nition of function.