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NAMING AND NECESSITY “Much of the philosophical work of the last half-century could not have existed without Naming and Necessity. If you read this marvelous book, you’ll find out why.” David Chalmers, University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, NYU “Naming and Necessity represents a turning-point in the development of modern philosophy. It showed how confusions in the philosophy of language had blocked progress in metaphysics, and it provided a model of systematic philosophical theorizing informed by innovations in logic.” Timothy Williamson, Wykeham Professor of Logic Emeritus, Oxford University “Naming and Necessity is, arguably, the most important philosophical work in the last 100 years, with major implications for logic, metaphysics, epistemology, and our understanding of language. By showing that meaning, modality, and cognition aren’t ‘in the head,’ but rather are constituted by our relations with people and things, Kripke reinvigorated philosophy by shining new light on reference, essence, necessity, and apriority.” Scott Soames, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California “Kripke’s Naming and Necessity was a game-changer in English-speaking philosophy, giving birth to a new era of debates in metaphysics, semantics, and epistemology. 50 years later, there is still much to be learned from the book, and this anniversary edition is just the thing to take us back to the text and see it with new eyes.” Graham Priest, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus, the University of Melbourne Since first appearing in 1972, Saul Kripke’s Naming and Necessity has shaped and continues to shape debates in metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and adjacent areas. It overturned long-established views concerning the relationships between names and descriptions and a priority and necessity, and catalyzed today’s thriving essentialist metaphysics. This landmark work is here reissued for its 50th anniversary with a new preface by the author revisiting its central themes, and a new foreword by Romina Birman, Director of the Saul Kripke Center. If there is such a thing as essential reading in analytic philosophy, this is it.

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"When these lectures were first published eight years ago, they stood analytic philosophy on its ear. Everybody was either furious, or exhilarated, or thoroughly perplexed. No one was indifferent. This welcome republication in a separate volume (with a helpful new preface, but no substantive changes) provides a chance to look back at a modern classic, and to say something about why it was found so shocking and liberating. ""Naming and Necessity lays out a way of thinking about the relation between language and the world which permits just as formal and rigorous a treatment of notions like ""meaning,"" ""truth"" and ""reference"" as had Russell's and Frege's. Nobody would have believed that the neatness--what Kripke calls ""the marvellous internal coherence""--of Frege-Russell semantics could be duplicated after everything was turned upside down. But Kripke showed how to do it, and now philosophers are busily rewriting all of semantics (and a good deal of epistemology) in Kripkean terms. ""Brilliant and very influential . . . stands up as an impressive and enduring work of philosophy, outstanding in its sweep, clarity and penetration.""--""Colin McGinn, Times Higher Education Supplement""""When these lectures were first published eight years ago, they stood analytic philosophy on its ear. Everybody was either furious, or exhilarated, or thoroughly perplexed. No one was indifferent. This welcome republication provides a chance to look back at a modern classic, and to say something about why it was found so shocking and liberating.""--""Richard Rorty, London Review of Books"""

"""Much of the philosophical work of the last half-century could not have existed without Naming and Necessity. If you read this marvelous book, you'll find out why."" —David Chalmers, University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, NYU ""Naming and Necessity represents a turning-point in the development of modern philosophy. It showed how confusions in the philosophy of language had blocked progress in metaphysics, and it provided a model of systematic philosophical theorizing informed by innovations in logic."" —Timothy Williamson, Wykeham Professor of Logic Emeritus, Oxford University ""Naming and Necessity is, arguably, the most important philosophical work in the last 100 years, with major implications for logic, metaphysics, epistemology, and our understanding of language. By showing that meaning, modality, and cognition aren’t 'in the head,' but rather are constituted by our relations with people and things, Kripke reinvigorated philosophy by shining new light on reference, essence, necessity, and apriority."" —Scott Soames, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California ""Kripke's Naming and Necessity was a game-changer in English-speaking philosophy, giving birth to a new era of debates in metaphysics, semantics, and epistemology. 50 years later, there is still much to be learned from the book, and this anniversary edition is just the thing to take us back to the text and see it with new eyes."" —Graham Priest, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus, the University of Melbourne"

Author Information

Saul A. Kripke (1940—2022) was a Distinguished Professor in the Philosophy and Computer Science Programs at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. The author of trailblazing results in modal logic while still in high school, Kripke went on to become one of the most influential logicians and philosophers of his time. He was awarded the Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2001.

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