The articles in this collection focus on philosophical approaches to proper names. The issues discussed include abstract names, empty names, naming and name-using practices, definite descriptions, individuals, reference, designation, sense and semantics. The contributions show the importance and lasting influence of theories proposed by John Stuart Mill, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Donald Davidson, and Saul Kripke. Individual chapters assess traditional analyses and modern controversies, and contribute to the debate on proper names in contemporary philosophy of language.

This book deals with the main proponents of the causal and descriptivist reference theories on natural kind terms. The two main types of contemporary reference theories on natural kind terms are the causal and the descriptivist theories. The author analyzes the main versions of these two types of theories and claims that the differences between them are not as great as it is usually assumed. He alleges that the ostensive reference fixing and reference borrowing theories should be descriptive-causal, and he also adduces that the relation of kind-identity depends on the views on kind-identity and thus involves descriptive elements. This book is an important contribution to the debate on reference in contemporary philosophy of language and linguistics.

El problema de la referencia es uno de los problemas fundamentales de la filosofia. Formulado de manera general, es el problema de como nuestras palabras y nuestros pensamientos se conectan con los objetos o individuos sobre los que hablamos o pensamos. Este libro versa sobre la referencia de los nombres propios, una de las cuestiones de mayor discusion en el ambito contemporaneo de la filosofia del lenguaje, marcada por dos lineas teoricas fundamentales, la teoria descriptiva y la historico-casual. Esta ultima constituye desde los anos setenta del siglo pasado el paradigma dominante. La presente obra tiene un doble objetivo. Por una parte, expone y comenta las ideas principales que articulan las teorias de los representantes mas destacados de ambos tipos de teorias de la referencia. Por otra, sostiene que los argumentos mas importantes formulados contra la teoria descriptiva, es decir, los argumentos en torno a la ignorancia y el error, no constituyen objeciones decisivas contra tal tipo de teoria o, al menos, contra ciertas versiones de la misma.