50 Philosophy Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon

Author:Tom Butler-Bowdon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Published: 2013-04-16T21:00:00+00:00

(1972)

Naming and Necessity

“Could we discover that gold was not in fact yellow? Suppose an optical illusion were prevalent, due to peculiar properties of the atmosphere in South Africa and Russia and certain other areas where gold mines are common. Suppose there were an optical illusion which made the substance appear to be yellow; but, in fact, once the peculiar properties of the atmosphere were removed, we would see that it is actually blue … Would there on this basis be an announcement in the newspapers: ‘It has turned out that there is no gold. Gold does not exist. What we took to be gold is not in fact gold.’? … It seems to me that there would be no such announcement. On the contrary, what would be announced would be that though it appeared that gold was yellow, in fact gold has turned out not to be yellow, but blue. The reason is, I think, that we use ‘gold’ as a term for a certain kind of thing. Others have discovered this kind of thing and we have heard of it. We thus as part of a community of speakers have a certain connection between ourselves and a certain kind of thing.”

In a nutshell

The meaning of something is found not in the descriptions

given of it, but in its essential properties.

In a similar vein

A.J. Ayer Language, Truth and Logic (p 28)

Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations (p 300)

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