ABSTRACT
Influential work on proper names, most centrally associated with Kripke, has had a significant influence in the literature on singular thought. Kripke is meant to have taught the people that the content of a sentence containing an ordinary proper name is a singular proposition containing the referent of the name. The fact about the range of name-use has shaped the singular thought literature over the last several decades: the idea that any ‘acquaintance’ constraint on singular thought must be very permissive is now truly dominant; the view that there is no acquaintance requirement on singular thought is now fairly popular. illustrated the shape that one kind of argument against extended-name-based singular thought thesis might take: it might start with the idea that the function of names is to allow for name-based referential communication, and be based on the claim that pure testimony cases are cases in which a name cannot perform its primary function.
