A Comparison of Tichý and Prior’s Approach to Definite Descriptions and the Possibilities of Enrichment of Tichý’s Treatment

One of Pavel Tichý’s celebrated observations was that definite descriptions do not denote individuals but individual offices. In our paper, we compare Tichý’s concept of individual offices to the concept proposed by Arthur N. Prior, who differentiated between the strong and the weak “the”. The aim of our paper is to point out parallels and differences. The differences stem in particular from their different approaches to contingency given by their accepted ontology. In addition, we would like to enrich Tichý’s analysis of individual offices by including certain features of Prior’s concept. The proposed outline might provide a challenge for a more detailed analysis of definite descriptions in Tichý’s Transparent Intensional Logic.

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References

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