Naming and Necessity
1980 — lectures on names, necessity, and identity
Work
Lecture series (1970) published 1980; rigid designators and necessary a posteriori truths.
Primary publication. Kripke, S. (1980). Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Lectures given 1970; published with Essays on the Work of W. V. Quine.)
Claims we use
- Necessary a posteriori — e.g. “Water is H₂O” may be necessary yet discovered empirically. In our ladder: a tier-2+ claim’s logical form does not settle its evidential path.
- Rigid designation — reference can persist across counterfactual scenarios; identity claims may carry modal force distinct from proof status.
Corpus use
Justifies not collapsing “proved in system S,” “observed,” and “metaphysically necessary” into one epistemic badge.