To sum up, in this essay it is outlined Bertnard Russell’s Theory of Definite Descriptions while also pointing out the three main puzzles and problems there are concerning his theory. ‘Alexandra’, ‘Rasputin’ and ‘Felix Youssoupoff’ are proper names: they are the names of the wife of the last Tsar of Russia, the monk she admired and the man who shot that monk. We use the names to refer to those people. But what about the...
To sum up, in this essay it is outlined Bertnard Russell’s Theory of Definite Descriptions while also pointing out the three main puzzles and problems there are concerning his theory. ‘Alexandra’, ‘Rasputin’ and ‘Felix Youssoupoff’ are proper names: they are the names of the wife of the last Tsar of Russia, the monk she admired and the man who shot that monk. We use the names to refer to those people. But what about the bits where we used phrases like ‘wife of the last Tsar of Russia’ or ‘the man who shot the monk’? These are called definite descriptions, and now we can say that although it is easy just to say they serve the same purpose, we know how Russell does not think that that is not the case and that he strongly feels that unlike proper names, definite descriptions do not refer. He sees definite descriptions as quantifiers; he is suggesting that definite descriptions are quantifier phrases.”