Beyond Rigidification: The Importance of Being Really Actual
Barcelona Conference on General Terms
Stephen Yablo
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Sense theory: names are linked to properties…
modally
being n goes necessarily with having the properties
epistemically being n goes apriori with having the properties conceptually being n goes in understanding with having the properties
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Each link sets up false expectations
modal If being water goes necessarily with being the watery stuff, then there could be water without hydrogen. If being a cat goes a priori with being a purring, furry animal, then cats are as an apriori matter animals.
epistemic
conceptual If being Peano goes conceptually with finding those axioms, then to be Peano you must discover PA.
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But related phenomena, it seems, do obtain
modal epistemic conceptual
Water seems possible without hydrogen. A meter is as an a priori matter the length of stick S. Nothing counts as heat unless it feels thus and so.
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Is this fair
"Kripke's conclusions are a function less of his evidence than the order of presentation. Better to do it the other way around: the true predictions motivate descriptivism and the false ones are a guide to its proper development."
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2D Idea (D&H Version)
The epistemic and conceptual problems are small potatoes, reflecting just a bad choice of associated properties. The modal problem is the one that matters. It arises because we misjudged the association. Being n goes with being the G not across counterfactual worlds but counteractual. S is true in
counterfactual counteractual
w iff
had w obtained, it would have been the case that if it turns out w does obtain, it is the case that
S
Look for a description 'D' such that 'D = n' holds across counterfactual worlds and'D = the G' holds across counteractual ones.
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Rigidified Descriptions

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