person1959-2022

Saul Kripke

Disciplines:

Summary

American philosopher and logician who revolutionized philosophy of language through modal logic semantics, the causal theory of names, and the distinction between necessity and apriority.

Core Contribution

Naming and Necessity: proper names are rigid designators picking out the same object in all possible worlds; reference is fixed by causal-historical chains, not descriptions; identity statements between names are necessarily true if true at all. Also provided the first standard semantics for modal logic via possible worlds.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Separated necessity (metaphysical) from apriority (epistemic), showing there are necessary a posteriori truths (water is H2O) and contingent a priori truths (the standard meter is one meter long).
Argued that Wittgenstein's rule-following considerations generate a skeptical paradox with no straight solution, only a skeptical solution — a controversial reading that sparked enormous debate.
Published Naming and Necessity from transcripts of unscripted lectures — no notes, no written draft — at age 29, producing one of the most influential philosophical works of the century.

Notable Works & Achievements

Naming and Necessity

Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic

Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language

Reference and Existence

Historical Influences

Gottlob Frege Bertrand Russell Rudolf Carnap

Intellectual Lineage

Analytic Philosophy Formal Logic Philosophy of Language

Contemporaries & Peers

David Lewis Hilary Putnam David Kaplan

Minds Influenced

David Kaplan Hilary Putnam David Chalmers Nathan Salmon

Intellectual Posterity

Rigid Designation Causal Theory of Reference Possible Worlds Semantics A Posteriori Necessity

Discussing

Saul Kripke

Ask anything about Saul Kripke — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

person1959-2022

Saul Kripke

Disciplines:

logic

philosophy/philosophy of language

metaphysics

Summary

American philosopher and logician who revolutionized philosophy of language through modal logic semantics, the causal theory of names, and the distinction between necessity and apriority.

Core Contribution

Key Spikes & Highlights

Separated necessity (metaphysical) from apriority (epistemic), showing there are necessary a posteriori truths (water is H2O) and contingent a priori truths (the standard meter is one meter long).
Argued that Wittgenstein's rule-following considerations generate a skeptical paradox with no straight solution, only a skeptical solution — a controversial reading that sparked enormous debate.
Published Naming and Necessity from transcripts of unscripted lectures — no notes, no written draft — at age 29, producing one of the most influential philosophical works of the century.

Notable Works & Achievements

Naming and Necessity

Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic

Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language

Reference and Existence

Historical Influences

Gottlob Frege Bertrand Russell Rudolf Carnap

Intellectual Lineage

Analytic Philosophy Formal Logic Philosophy of Language

Contemporaries & Peers

David Lewis Hilary Putnam David Kaplan

Minds Influenced

David Kaplan Hilary Putnam David Chalmers Nathan Salmon

Intellectual Posterity

Rigid Designation Causal Theory of Reference Possible Worlds Semantics A Posteriori Necessity

Discussing

Saul Kripke

Ask anything about Saul Kripke — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.