Argument in favour of descriptive theory of names.

Abstract

According to theories of rigid designation and direct reference, proper names refer without intervening sense. These theories have replaced sense theories which consider names as descriptive. In spite of certain uses of names with deteminers and quantifiers which cannot be explained by referentialist theories, descriptive theories are not considered as alternatives lo referential theories. However, there is a type of descriptive theory which considers names as equivalent to a metalinguistic description "The bearer of N". Names can be analysed as normal predicates. This interpretation is backed by the fact that names can be used with universal quantifiers which can precede names in various languages.