On Denoting

"On Denoting" is an essay by Bertrand Russell from 1905. The essay was published in the philosophy journal Mind in 1905. It was reprinted, in both a special 2005 anniversary issue of the same journal and in Russell's Logic and Knowledge, 1956. The essay is one of the most significant and influential philosophical essays of the 20th century. In it, Russell introduces definite and indefinite descriptions, formulates descriptivism with regard to proper names, and characterises proper names as "disguised" or "abbreviated" definite descriptions.

In the 1920s, Frank P. Ramsey referred to the essay as "that paradigm of philosophy". In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry Descriptions, Peter Ludlow singled the essay out as "the paradigm of philosophy", and called it a work of "tremendous insight"; provoking discussion and debate among philosophers of language and linguists for over a century.Ludlow, Peter, "Descriptions", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2005 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2005/entries/descriptions/

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Category:Works of philosophy
Category:British essays
Category:1905 works