How to Refer to Artifacts
Hilary� Kornblith · 2007
Abstract In the 1970s, a consensus began to emerge about the mechanisms of reference for proper names and natural kind terms. As a result of the work of Donnellan (1966), Kaplan (1979), Kripke (1980), and Putnam (1975), a descriptions-based theory of reference was largely rejected in favor of a causal, historical or direct theory of reference. On a simple descriptions-based account, a speaker uses a name to refer to an individual when that speaker associates a description with that name, where the description uniquely picks out the referent.