Beyond Rigidity The Unfinished Semantic Agenda of Naming and Necessity [Hardcover]

In this fascinating work, Scott Soames offers a new conception of the relationship between linguistic meaning and assertions made by utterances. He gives meanings of proper names and natural kind predicates and explains their use in attitude ascriptions. He also demonstrates the irrelevance of rigid designation in understanding why theoretical identities containing such predicates are necessary, if true.

In this admirable book, Scott Soames provides well defended answers to some of the most difficult and important qurstions in the philosophy of language, and he does so with characteristic thoroughness, clarity, and rigor. --Michael McKinsey,Canadian Journal of Philosophy