User:Mark Dingemanse/draft1
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A singular term is a word or phrase conveying a reference to a particular object. Proper names like ‘Socrates’ are singular terms, as are indexicals like demonstrative phrases (‘this man’) and demonstrative pronouns (‘this’ or ‘that’). Singular is this sense is opposed to general, not to plural. Singular terms have been food for thought in logic and philosophy of language at least since Aristotle and continue to occupy logicians and philosophers to this day.
Several reasons can be given for the persistent interest in the various kinds of singular terms through the ages. The proper name, a well known kind of singular term, was treated at some length by the Latin grammarian Priscian (c. 500) and has ever since continued to attract attention because it is notoriously hard to define. In medieval philosophy, the question as to the mental correlate of singular terms was especially current as the general theory up to the thirteenth century was that mental concepts were universal and not singular (the 'problem of universals'). The meaning of indexicals, another subset of singular terms, is hard to pin down because their interpretation somehow depends on the context, and for that reason is of interest to thinkers.
Throughout the history of philosophy, various terms have been used to refer to singular terms. Porphyry of Tyre (c. 232—before 306) in his Isagoge wrote about individuals (individuum). In Peter of Spains commentary on Aristotle's De Anima, individual and discrete term are used interchangeably. John Buridan and his older contemporary William of Ockham talked about 'singular terms' or just 'singulars'. The logician Gottlob Frege employed an extended definition of proper name. Saul Kripke’s ‘designator’ (both rigid and flaccid) may be taken to mean roughly the same as ‘singular term’. For reasons of clarity and simplicity, this article will use 'singular term' throughout.
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[edit] Ancient Period and Aristotelian logic
- Aristotle (singular terms don’t fit in my syllogisms, so I won’t say much about them)
- Porphyry (three kinds of singular terms though)
- Priscian (thoughts about proper names)
[edit] Medieval theories of singular terms
- Duns Scotus (intellect actually can grasp the individual)
- Peter of Spain (mentions singular terms)
[edit] The nominalists and beyond
- Ockham (singular terms gained a natural importance because for nominalists singular objects was all the world consisted of)
- Buridan (singular terms figure in his account of cognition and mental language)
- Oresme (a pupil of Buridan who developed Buridan's account of cognition and the mental representation of singular concepts)
- John Dorp
- Peter of Ailly
[edit] Singular terms in twentieth century logic and philosophy of language
After Jean Buridan and his followers,
- Frege’s proper names
- Russelian descriptive terms (though indexicals were covert existential statements)
- Kripke’s rigid&flaccid designators, causal reference theory
- Putnam
- Kaplan’s 1989a,b treatment of indexicals
[edit] References
[edit] Primary sources
- Buridan's commentary on the De Anima
- Porphyry's commentary on the Isagoge
- Frege's 'Sinn und Bedeuting' (Sense and Reference)
- Putnam
- Kripke
- Kaplan 1989a,b
[edit] Secondary sources
- Ashworth, E.J. (2004)
- Klima
- Lagerlund, Henrik. [2005]. (unpublished paper presented on …)
