Episode 126: Saul Kripke on Possibilities, Language & Science (Part Two)

Summary: On Naming and Necessity (1980).<br> What's the relationship between language and the world? Does a term like "tiger" as we use it refer to that animal because we have a certain mental image or definition of that animal in our heads? Saul Kripke says no: If "tigers have stripes" was part of the definition of a tiger, then it would be a logical contradiction to talk about an abnormal, stripe-less tiger, when clearly it isn't.<br> In this part of the discussion, we try on Kripke's ideas and see what this makes us think about natural kind terms (like "tiger"), about physical objects, about substances identified by science, about heat vs. the feeling of heat, and about pain: Would pain, if caused by a different brain state than whatever causes it in us, still be pain?<br> <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/11/02/episode-126-saul-kripke-on-possibilities-language-science-part-one/" target="_blank">Listen to part one first</a> or <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/10/31/ep126-kripke-citizen/" target="_blank">get the Citizen Edition</a>. <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/10/20/topic-for-126-saul-kripke-on-possibilities-language-and-science/" target="_blank">Read more about the topic and get the book</a>.<br> Oh, and <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v02/n17/richard-rorty/kripke-versus-kant" target="_blank">here's</a> that essay about Kripke by Richard Rorty that we discuss briefly near the end.<br> End song: "Reason Enough" by <a href="http://www.marklint.com/samples.html" target="_blank">Mark Lint</a>, a brand-new recording of a song written in 2003. <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/11/01/partially-naked-self-examination-music-blog-reason-enough/" target="_blank">Read about it</a>.<br>