On Reference of Proper Names: Descriptive and Causal Approaches

The article considers the semantics of proper names in the context of analytical philosophy. The author classifies and analyzes the existing approaches to the issue of proper names reference (the descriptive theory of reference and the direct reference theory) and also reveals the points of their mutual intersection. After briefly defining the main theses of descriptive theory, the author proposes to distinguish its strong version from the weak one. According to the strong version, presented primarily by the works of G. Frege and B. Russell, the name, in fact, is a disguised description (or conjunction of descriptions), while, according to the weak version, dating back to the works of J. Searle, a name is associated with a complex disjunction of descriptions. In both the first and second cases, it is the descriptions that specify the denotation of the name; in other words, the name indicates the object only indirectly. However, this approach, at least, does not take into account the possibility of naming an object using a ‘false’ description, that is, a description that specifies the characteristic(s) to which the object does not correspond. The semantics of proper names is interpreted in a fundamentally different way in direct reference theory, according to which names are labels for objects. The reference of the name in this case is determined either with the help of a causal chain of communication (S. Kripke), or with the help of a historical explanation of the relationship between the one who uses the name and the singular object that is designated by that name (K. Donnellan). The name itself is understood as a rigid designator, directly and strictly pointing to the same object in any factual or counterfactual situation. This approach allows us to show how, for example, it is possible to use an incorrect description to refer to a certain subject. The comparative study of these theories made it possible to discover the presence of causal aspects in the descriptive theory of reference and the significance of descriptive characteristics in the direct reference theory, and thereby more accurately describe the semantics of proper names.