The Discussion And Analysis Of Kripke's Essentialism

There have been continuous discussions about the essence of objects for thousands of years.Aristotle's,Hume,Kripke and others have furthered the research with special opinions variably.Modal Logic boomed in the 20th century,and then essentialism became a hot topic in philosophical research of Modal Logic.Here,I want to show Kripke's essentialism through Aristotle's' definition of esscnce,Quine's antiessentialism, and Kripke's justification of essentialism.While Kripke strengthens the discussions on essential attributes of objects in confirming his theory of philosophy,his methods of research are nearly related to modal predicate logic.In terms of"Naming and Necessity",this thesis probes in examine Kripke's theory of essentialism in an objective and rational way.Part One serves the context of Kripke's essentialism.I will introduce the traditional belief of essentialism,show Aristotle's classical Essentialism and its formal appearance in modal logic,and delineate the difference between modern essentialism and Aristotle's'.Then,to reach the core of my thesis,I will examine the idea of anti-essentialism served by logical empiricism.Part Two talks about the main thought of Kripke's essentialism.I will examine it from four aspects:(1) the theory of semantics of possible worlds;(2) priori and accidental propositions and posteriori and necessary propositions;(3) historical,causal theory of reference;(4) arguments about natural classes and individual essence.Part Three analyzes the value of Kripke's essentialism.Like any effective thought of philosophy,Kripke's theory has its influence to be examined industriously:(1)it gives up the traditional belief of essentialism;(2) it makes many philosophers,such as Putnam,to make joint efforts to defend essentialism;(3) it recon fronts attracts from Quine and other philosophers of anti-essentialism.In addition,I will suggest some deficiencies of Kripke's essentialism.