How is it possible to refer to something that doesn’t exist? What kind of sense could a definite description like “the present emperor of CHINA” have since is is clear there is no denotation for “the present emperor of CHINA?” Are statements about non-existent entities true or false? How does our sense of the way language relates to reality change when we speak of the unreal?
Bertrand Russell voiced by Alexander Moneypenny.
Works Cited:
Frege, Gottlob. “On Sense and Nominatum (1892).” The Philosophy of Language, edited by Aloysius Martinich, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 190–202.
Russell, Bertrand. “On Denoting (1905).” The Philosophy of Language, edited by Aloysius Martinich, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 203–211.
Russell, Bertrand. “Descriptions (1919).” The Philosophy of Language, edited by Aloysius Martinich, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 212–218.
