Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:
Q1. On p. 39, Kripke introduces the concepts of de dicto and de re modality. a. Explain the distinction between de dicto and de re modality according to Kripke [see pp.39-42 followed by nine arguments for de re modality]. Provide at least one example of a what Kaplan calls a syntactically de dicto modal statement and one example of a syntactically de re modal statement. What is the syntactic idea behind the distinction? b. For the following, assume that syntactically de dicto modal statement are semantically de dicto and that syntactically de re modal statement are semantically de re (warning, as we have noted in class, Kripke himself does not always follow this norm, e.g. p.41 “the winner of the election might have been someone else.”). Assume further that Kripke is correct that names are rigid designators (in the sense given in class). [The Office Hour Notes from 5/5 may be relevant.] Given that, in fact, Nixon is the winner of the 1968 presidential election (henceforth “the winner”), a. Could Nixon fail to be the winner? (i.e. could it be the case that, is it possible that Nixon fails to be the winner?) Explain your answer. b. Could the winner fail to be Nixon? Explain. c. Could Nixon fail to be Nixon? Explain. d. Could the winner fail to be the winner? Explain. e. Is it the case that the winner could fail to be the winner? Explain. f. Is it the case that Nixon could fail to be the winner? Explain. g. Is it the case that Nixon could fail to be Nixon? Explain. h. Is it the case that the winner could fail to be Nixon? Explain. According to Kripke, which of the above statements are true and which false? Give a short justification for your answer. Q2. Suppose that the King is authorized to name towns, and the King′s courtiers, who know that there is an unnamed town (and only one town) at the mouth of the Dart, convey this fact to the King. Let us accept that the King that knows what he has been 2 told. The King then stipulates (out loud) that ″Dartmouth″ shall be the name of the town at the mouth of the Dart. Now consider the statement: i) Dartmouth is the town at the mouth of the Dart. a. Does the King know this? Do the courtiers know it? Is there any difference in the way the King knows (i) (i.e. the epistemological status of his knowledge) and the way the courtiers knows (i)? Discuss. b. What is the modal (metaphysical) status of (i)? Discuss? Now suppose you are in a geography class at UCLA and in discussing the English city Plymouth, the teacher tells you that ii) Plymouth is the city at the of the mouth of River Plym. c. IsthereanydifferenceinthewaytheKingknows(i)(i.e.theepistemologicalstatus of his knowledge) and the way the teacher knows (ii)? Is there any difference in the way the teacher knows (ii) and the way you knows (ii)? Discuss? d. What is the modal (metaphysical) status of (ii)? Explain. Q3. From the bottom paragraph on p. 90 to the end of the middle paragraph on p. 94, Kripke attempts to lay out two pictures of how the reference of a name is determined. Kripke’s picture seems not unlike the one presupposed by Mill, except that Kripke is acutely aware of the difficulties in the network whereby names are “spread from link to link”, what Kaplan called name moving. a. In your own words, describe the two pictures. What role do name giving and name using play in each of the two pictures? b. How does Kripke’s picture relate to your answer to Q2a and Q2c? c. Does Kripke’s picture support to his p.78 claim “Even when Theses (2)-(4) are true, Thesis (5) is usually false; the truth of Theses (3) and (4) is an empirical ′accident′, which the speaker hardly knows a priori”? Explain. [Parts of the Lecture Notes for 4/21, 5/5, and the long, edited notes from 5/26 may be relevant.; also the Office Hour Notes from 5/20 and 6/3.] [CONTINUED] 3 d. Does Kripke’s picture support his p. 78 claim, “Only in a rare class of cases, usually initial baptisms, are all of ( 2 )-(5) true.”? Explain. How does this claim relate to your answer to Q2a?