{"product_id":"9780190208059","title":"Reference and Existence: The John Locke Lectures","description":"\u003cem\u003eReference and Existence\u003c\/em\u003e, Saul Kripke's John Locke Lectures for 1973, can be read as a sequel to his classic \u003cem\u003eNaming and Necessity\u003c\/em\u003e. It confronts important issues left open in that work -- among them, the semantics of proper names and natural kind terms as they occur in fiction and in myth; negative existential statements; the ontology of fiction and myth (whether it is true that fictional characters like Hamlet, or mythical kinds like bandersnatches, might have existed). In treating these questions, he makes a number of methodological observations that go beyond the framework of his earlier book -- including the striking claim that fiction cannot provide a test for theories of reference and naming. In addition, these lectures provide a glimpse into the transition to the pragmatics of singular reference that dominated his influential paper, \"Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference\" -- a paper that helped reorient linguistic and philosophical semantics. Some of the themes have been worked out in later writings by other philosophers -- many influenced by typescripts of the lectures in circulation -- but none have approached the careful, systematic treatment provided here. The virtuosity of \u003cem\u003eNaming and Necessity\u003c\/em\u003e -- the colloquial ease of the tone, the dazzling, on-the-spot formulations, the logical structure of the overall view gradually emerging over the course of the lectures -- is on display here as well.","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47119725691120,"sku":"9780190208059","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780190208059_p0.jpg?v=1763658627","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780190208059","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}