This chapter examines the Proper Name and Definite Description Theories. According to Quine and Tarski, quotations lack semantic structure (their position is often misleadingly called the “Proper Name Theory”.) According to (other passages by) Quine and Tarski, and also Geach, quotations are structured definite descriptions. The Definite Description Theory fails for reasons very similar to those that undermine the Proper Name Theory. It is argued that quotation appears to provide a counter-example to Neale's NC theory: Every meaningful (...) noun phrase (NP) in natural language is either a semantically unstructured, referring expression (singular term) or else a semantically structured, restricted quantifier. Quotation expressions don't fit easily into either of the two categories Neale claims that all noun phrases belong to (and quotation expressions are, at least sometimes, noun phrases). The versions of the Proper Name and Description Theories discussed in this chapter were at the centre of the semantics for quotation until Davidson's paper “Quotation”. Since then there have been few, if any, attempts to resurrect these theories. (shrink)

This article examines the name of ‘Jesus’ theologically through the hermeneutic methodology of the speech act theory. We can say that to believe in Jesus is to believe in the name of Jesus. However, even though the name of Jesus represents Jesus, theological research following the name of Jesus has not been actively conducted. If Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour, there must be a theological and hermeneutical discussion about what theological implications are (...) in the name of Jesus, which implies all of this and how this name of Jesus affects our lives. Therefore, this article judges that theological consideration of the name of Jesus is necessary and tries to examine the name of Jesus through the hermeneutical methodology of the speech act theory.Contribution: The performative nature of the name of Jesus signifies the presence of Jesus. By having faith in the name of Jesus, believers put the saving meaning of his name into action, and the power of Jesus becomes a reality in their lives. (shrink)

I have been asked to respond to Therese Cory's contribution, "The Distinctive Unity of the Human Being In Aquinas". In her essay, Cory contends that characterizing Aquinas or his anthropology as being Aristotelian is “problematic” because this “sweeping label” “has distorted and concealed some of the most elegant features of his approach to the human being.” She goes so far as to recommend that “in general one ought to avoid wholesale name-labeling of theories—e.g. ‘Aristotelian, Platonist, Thomistic, Cartesian’.” She proposes (...) an alternative guide for any would-be authentic reception of Aquinas’ anthropology rooted in the “distinctive unity of the human” to be “one distinctive kind of reality.” Her guide focuses on two principles: the horizon principle and the uniformity principle. I shall briskly sketch around ten objections or counter-contentions to Cory’s claims. I will conclude with an alternative proposal that “philosophical characters” are indispensable to philosophical enquiry, including Thomist enquiries aiming to receive and develop. (shrink)

Please note that a commentary recently published in this journal (Heng; Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 2007, 2:3) includes substantial duplication of Letters to the Editor published in Developing World Bioethics (Heng; Developing World Bioethics 2007, 7:49) and Human Fertility (Heng; Human Fertility 2007, 10: 129-130).

Book Review. Jos de Mul. The Tragedy of Finitude . Dilthey’s Hermeneutics of Life . New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2004.

This essay begins with an intertextual study comparing Locke’s journal entries collectively entitled Atlantis with the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. It then proceeds at greater length to trace in maps and correspondence the appearance—and disappearance—of “Locke Island” as a cartographic name place and epistolary reference. Although the island bearing Locke’s name has been noted before, its story is untold in the detail that it deserves. Not only is it intrinsically interesting that an island in the new world—now known (...) as Edisto Island—was once named for John Locke, but it is especially intriguing because of the fraught colonial politics attending it in the first place and especially the last. In particular, the disappearance of Locke Island from maps was a politically motivated cartographic erasure by one Maurice Mathews, a vindictive surveyor general at odds with the two principal Lords Proprietors for whom Locke worked as Secretary. Its story is also worth pursuing because—the coincidence is too hard to avoid, inviting conjecture—Locke Island was the very place in early colonial Carolina where Locke imagined an intentional community named Atlantis to be founded, however short-lived its fate. (shrink)

In recent years, a distinctive trend known as “Chinese-language philosophy” ( Hanyu zhexue 漢語哲學) has emerged, signifying a paradigm shift in Chinese philosophical studies. This movement seeks to re-establish the legitimacy of Chinese philosophy in a novel manner. While it has gained substantial traction within Chinese academia, it has found little resonance among international scholars of Chinese philosophy. This prompts a critical examination: What does “Chinese-language philosophy” encompass? What were the circumstances of its emergence and the reasons for its prominence (...) within Chinese academia? Is Chinese philosophy inherently a language-specific philosophy? These questions form the core of our exploration, intending to clarify the name and nature of “Chinese-language philosophy.” We caution against an overemphasis on the role of language in philosophy, as it may lead to a language-centric ontology that overlooks the fundamental underpinnings shared by all philosophical traditions across cultures and inherent in all human languages—namely, the lived experiences and social practices of human beings. (shrink)

Sadreddin Konevi is one of the most important statesmen of the unity of existence. Konevi was not content with just commenting on the works of her sheikh Ibn al-Arabi, he also produced many works and offered different perspectives on many Sufi issues with his own original interpretations. His esoteric comments regarding the name of Allah and the spiritual secrets it indicates are particularly striking. Konevi, which explains in depth the manifestations of the level of divinity and the name (...) of Allah in the ontology that emerged in the idea of unity of existence, states that all the divine tricks of this name, which is dominant in the level of unity, are completed after the level of ahadiyyah, that is, the level of oneness where there is no manifestation. He explained that it is a level of existence in which God is manifested. Konevi, like his sheikh Ibn al-Arabi, named the reality of muhame-diyye, which is the manifestation of Allah, as the 'real Adam' and 'human reality', which collects all the existing truths in itself. Konevi, who concluded in detail the stages of suluk and ascension that must be performed in order for the perfect human being to reach the manifestation of God, that is, the level of divinity, interpreted the inner secrets of this name. He also emphasized why it is the most encompassing and important name among the divine names of Allah, and also explained the symbolic meanings of the five letters that make up this name. Konevi, who examines the letter "Elif" in terms of its utterance in the verses, the unification of the manifestation from the unseen to the manifestation, its being a symbol of the divine breath, and its writing in terms of three movements, intermittent, expanding and cyclical, examines the symbolic meanings of these movements in depth. Konevi presented a symbolic interpretation of the letters that form the name of Allah on what the two letters "lam" and "he", like the letter elif, signify inwardly at the levels of beings. In this study, we tried to explain Konevi's ontological explanations of the name of Allah, how and which beings are marked in the terminology of unity of existence, and the daily interpretations of the symbolic works of the letters that make up this name. (shrink)

This paper comments on Victor Klemperer’s LTI, chapter XIII. First, the book is situated in an ensemble of simultaneously published works that were formative for the pre‑Federal-Republic »Aufarbeitung« of the Nazi past (thesis 1). Second, it is shown that Klemperer’s tripartite chapter on names in LTI lays out the general tendency of the Nazi ideologization of language in detail. Chapter XIII thus concludes with a remarkable punch line in which Klemperer’s onomasiological analysis ironically and tragically coincides with his personal testimony (...) (thesis 2). Third, Klemperer’s rather unsystematic, phenomenon-oriented analysis of both proper and local names is supplemented by a necessary logical-semantic, linguistic-pragmatic, linguistic-anthropological and linguistic-theological perspective. It is argued for the thesis that LTI-ideologization of language, as described in detail by Klemperer, deliberately exploits the linguistic »magic« and illocutionary force of individual names and collective singulars. This seems also the reason why it was able to develop such a strong linguistic aftermath in everyday German language (thesis 3). The article concludes with a brief survey of past and present discussions on the possible proper names for the »event« of the murder of the European Jews itself. It regards the undecidedness between proper name and namelessness as not an inappropriate expression of the historical events for which the metonymical names »Auschwitz«, »Holocaust«, »Shoah«, and »Churban« stand (thesis 4). (shrink)

This article explores the performative utterance ‘in the name of Jesus’ within the framework of speech act theory, proposing the theological model E = hF(p). In this model, F represents the authoritative act, p the theological proposition and h signifies the intervention and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, with E indicating the resulting transformation or healing. Rather than treating the name of Jesus as a symbolic expression, the study presents it as a linguistic event that forms reality through (...) the Spirit’s presence. Drawing from biblical texts and pneumatological theology, the article demonstrates how divine power operates in and through performative language. It also examines the ontological and charismatic implications of such speech acts, highlighting how speech, empowered by the Spirit, creates real spiritual effects. Finally, it considers the ethical and communal responsibilities of healing discourse within charismatic and ecclesial contexts. Contribution: This study introduces E = hF(p) as a theological model for understanding how the name of Jesus, through the Spirit, produces ontological transformation. It offers a new framework connecting speech act theory with charismatic healing practice. (shrink)

All the experimental work on the reference of proper names during the last 20 years has utilised setups modelled after Kripke’s Gödel and Jonah cases. Doubts remain, however, about the viability of the setup. This paper reports the results from a new experiment, using a different and novel kind of setup. The novel setup is simultaneously used on proper names, artefact terms, and definitional terms, with the last two categories serving as controls. Our vignettes describe cases of potential reference swaps, (...) where two referring expressions begin, due to a mix-up, to be used with the intention of referring to each others’ original referents. In otherwise analogous cases, it was found that a majority of Western subjects understand proper names to continue to refer to their original referents, whereas this was not the case for the two other classes of expression. The results indicate, first, that this experimental setup, unlike earlier ones, succeeds in distinguishing between different mechanisms of reference determination, and second, that proper names indeed do refer differently from the other classes of expression that were used. (shrink)

This article shows the success of local cultural adaptation strategies in communicating the gospel to people of the Nias ethnicity in North Sumatra, Indonesia. This adaptation is the name Lowalangi, the name of the god of the pre-Christian era, to become the name of God, the creator and saviour of the world incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ. As a result, the use of this name was not limited to a translation process. Still, the whole (...) concept of divinity for the Nias people was transferred and transformed into a Christian understanding. They know him as Lowalangi, have faith in him and pray to him in that name. The author uses a comparative analysis with other places in Indonesia. The author tries to establish parallelism with methods used elsewhere, assuming that the methods used tend to be the same. Contribution: Churches and Christians in Nias are strengthened in their beliefs by praying and mentioning Lowalangi’s name, which imparts the same faith quality as the biblical use of God’s personal name. This adaptation can be a strategy for introducing the gospel in missiology and church planting in response to local culture as a wealth that cannot be negated. This research also has implications for the sociology of religion regarding the relationship between tradition and religious practice. (shrink)

When shall we see the beginning of the end of the twenty years ‘name dispute’ between Macedonia and Greece, which left Macedonia in front of the NATO and EU doors, and which threatens to disintegrate the state along ethnic lines? When does the moment come when a chance may at least appear that “the nationalism of the powerless” will be considered reasonable when their goals are within reach? If international politics still functions on the principle expounded by the realists (...) - that the strong do what they want while the weak do what they must, and having in mind the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece, the question arises: how much time it takes for the nationalism of those who believe that they are powerful enough to get what they want (saying: “these are our rights and they are nonnegotiable”) to break down the nationalism of the “powerless”?The main thesis in this article is that whatever was achieved so far as a result of the pressure on Macedonia to change its constitutional name in these twenty years comes down to the following: the Macedonian nationalism increased and strengthened, the antagonism between the Macedonian and the Albanian political parties deepened, and the democratic process in the country was undermined. However, the results of the early elections in 2010, indicate that the Macedonian society slowly consolidates, under the so called ‘fatigue’ of protracted conflict’ and prepares for a compromise. (shrink)

Personal name avoidance, a cultural practice rooted in norms of hierarchy, respect, and taboo, shapes communication across diverse societies. As artificial intelligence (AI) communication tools such as chatbots, translation systems, and automated messaging platforms become integral to global interactions, their limited ability to accommodate these norms raises concerns about cultural sensitivity and bias. This theoretical study synthesizes sociolinguistic and AI research to examine how name avoidance in Vietnamese and English-speaking contexts challenges the recognition and adaptation capabilities of AI (...) systems. It explores the feasibility of machine learning to enable adaptive naming behaviors and addresses ethical dilemmas in balancing global functionality with localized cultural norms. Findings highlight AI’s potential to foster culturally aware interactions while revealing persistent technical and ethical challenges, including risks of cultural homogenization. The study advocates for responsive AI design, emphasizing socio-linguistically informed datasets and user-configurable interfaces to ensure equitable communication in a globalized world. Future empirical research is recommended to validate these insights. (shrink)

In their forthcoming article, ‘What makes a medical intervention invasive?’ De Marco, Simons, and colleagues explore the meaning and usage of the term ‘invasive’ in medical contexts. They describe a ‘Standard Account’, drawn from dictionary definitions, which defines invasiveness as ‘incision of the skin or insertion of an object into the body’. They then highlight cases wherein invasiveness is employed in a manner that is inconsistent with this account (eg, in describing psychotherapy) to argue that the term invasiveness is often (...) used to explicitly or implicitly reference interventions that do not fall under the standard account. The authors offer an alternative ‘schematic’ definition of invasiveness, whereby medical interventions entail an underlying context-independent property of ‘basic invasiveness’ and may be understood both relative to each other and to a context-specific threshold of what is ‘invasive’.1 We propose that the meaning of terms such as ‘invasiveness’ is necessarily heterogeneous, and that what is implied by its usage will certainly depend on context, particularly in medical settings. Hence, the creation of a unifying definition is less critical than clarification of the implied and intended meanings of each instance of the term’s use. We further argue that interpreting the use of terms like ‘invasiveness’ in medical practice is complicated by the embedding of each use of this term in a different ‘language game’, whereby words and their meanings are understood by an in-group familiar with …. (shrink)

As an alternative dispute resolution procedure, Domain Name Arbitration addresses not only contentions regarding the ownership of web pages, but also infringements of the Intellectual Property law such as cyber squatting or Internet piracy. In this spirit, panelists of the World Intellectual Property Organization enact law in accordance with what the involved parties provide them as burden of proof. Following this line of thought, we can assume that one party may remain unrepresented when it is not able to accomplish (...) legal procedures successfully. Nevertheless, does this kind of asymmetry always function in the way that we presume? This paper sets out to study how WIPO panelists tackle knowledge asymmetries when being manifested in Domain Name Arbitration. In particular, this paper concentrates on comparing two Domain Name Arbitration processes in which knowledge asymmetries play a significant role in the panelist’s final-and legally binding- decision. This analysis also examines how specific text-internal features give us a hint of unbalanced relationships between the Complainant and the Respondent of a Domain Name Arbitration process. It endeavors, thus, to understand how lexical, rhetorical-grammatical and discursive features work within discourse and may reach to influence the communicative act itself. Following Vijay K. Bhatia’s critical discourse analysis as main theoretical framework, this paper tries to comprehend the role asymmetries play in enacting Domain Name law. (shrink)

_Pretendism in Name Only_ By WoodsJohnCambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015. xii + 273. £22.99.

Although diagnosis is integral to the theory and practice of psychiatry, social scientists have not developed a comprehensive approach to diagnosis. This paper presents a preliminary outline of the issues which a sociology of diagnosis should integrate. These include bias and social control in psychiatric diagnosis, diagnosis as part of a new extension of the biopsychiatric medical model, and flaws in contemporary diagnostic categorization. These issues are then viewed in terms of professional practice styles, diagnostic biases, psychiatry's professional dominance over (...) the mental health field, and psychiatric hegemony over the clinical interaction with patients. (shrink)

“Thy word (or: essence) is true from the beginning”; thus reads the Psalmist's passage, oft quoted in kabbalistic literature (Psalm 119: 160). According to the originally conceived Judaistic meaning, truth was the word of God which was audible both acoustically and linguistically. Under the system of the synagogue, revelation is an acoustic process, not a visual one; or revelation at least ensues from an area which is metaphysically associated with the acoustic and the perceptible (in a sensual context). This is (...) repeatedly emphasised with reference to the words of the Torah (Deuteronomy 4: 12): “Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.” What precisely we are to understand by this voice and what is uttered through it is the very question which the various currents of Judaistic religious thought have constantly posed themselves. The indissoluble link between the idea of the revealed truth and the notion of language—is as much, that is, as the word of God makes itself heard through the medium of human language, if, otherwise, human experience can reach the knowledge of such a word at all—is presumably one of the most important, if not the most important, legacies bequeathed by Judaism to the history of religions. (shrink)

The name Iphianassa occurs only once in Latin literature—in the proem toDe Rerum Natura(=DRN). Here Lucretius illustrates the evils of religion with a description of Iphianassa's sacrifice at Aulis (1.80–101):illud in his rebus uereor, ne forte rearisimpia te rationis inire elementa uiamqueindugredi sceleris. quod contra saepius illareligio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta.Aulide quo pacto Triuiai uirginis aramIphianassai turparunt sanguine foedeductores Danaum delecti, prima uirorum.cui simul infula uirgineos circumdata comptusex utraque pari malarum parte profusast,et maestum simul ante aras adstare parentemsensit (...) et hunc propter ferrum celare ministrosaspectuque suo lacrimas effundere ciuis,muta metu terram genibus summissa petebat.nec miserae prodesse in tali tempore quibatquod patrio princeps donarat nomine regem.nam sublata uirum manibus tremibundaque ad arasdeductast, non ut sollemni more sacrorumperfecto posset claro comitari Hymenaeo,sed casta inceste nubendi tempore in ipsohostia concideret mactatu maesta parentis,exitus ut classi felix faustusque daretur.tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.It is clear that Lucretius treats the name Iphianassa as a synonym for Iphigenia. Homer (Il. 9.145, 9.287) and Sophocles (El. 157) mention a daughter of Agamemnon called Iphianassa, but in neither author is she the daughter who was sacrificed at Aulis (and in several versions rescued at the last moment by Artemis). The first known mention of this myth was in theCypria, where, according to the summary of Proclus, the daughter was called Iphigenia (Kinkel,EGF19; Bernabé,PEG1.41). Hesiod refers to it in theCatalogue of Women, where he calls the daughter Iphimede (Cat. fr. 23a.15–26 + b M-W). From the fifth centuryb.c.e., the extant sources, beginning with Pindar (Pyth. 11.22) and Aeschylus (Ag. 1526, 1555), call her Iphigenia. Why did Lucretius choose Iphianassa? (shrink)

Book Review. Jesús Conill-Sancho. Ética hermenéutica. Crítica desde la facticidad. [Hermeneutic Ethics. The Critique of Facticity]. Madrid: Tecnos, 2006.

[Book Review] Rudolf Makkreel and Frithjof Rodi, eds. Wilhelm Dilthey. Selected Works vol. III: The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Contemporary international migration is directly related to the construction of the nation-state. The variations in this migration are multiple, depending on the type of mobility, the territories and the characteristics of the people who practice it. One kind of migration that has been particularly important at the end of the twentieth century and so far in the twenty-first century is that of minors who migrate without being accompanied by their parents. The legal definitions, bureaucratic practices and rights of these minors-turned-migrants (...) vary across European states and in the international literature. This paper aims to analyse the terminology used colloquially in the media and academically to refer to this group of people. In the early days of the phenomenon, the acronym MENA (unaccompanied migrant minors) has been the most common in Spain. It was intended to be a “neutral” term used in the legal sphere and migration studies. Still, in recent times, MENA has become more than a descriptive category. It has become a way of criminalising a group of young people who are in national territory and come from another country (usually an African country and, especially, a Maghreb country). However, not everything is determined by the circumstances surrounding us or our lives as social beings. Social pressure, with its narrative, cannot mean leaving aside history, legal culture, and learning. We need a new language to talk about this group of people. Currently, the negative connotation hides the most human aspect of this condition; the term “MENA” is a banner to mystify a fundamental fact: we are talking about children and adolescents who, not being able to count on the protection of an adult or family member, are condemned to social exclusion. This article approaches the migrant child as a critical figure who embodies the paradox of humanitarian reasoning, which is also a legal and political paradox, encapsulating the tension between structural rejection and the individual capacity of the human subject. By focusing on the theoretically productive role of minors without parental guardianship as subjects of ethnographic examination, this paper aims to understand better how current anthropological knowledge redefines the concepts of childhood, adulthood, and migration. The first part of this paper focuses on examining the terminologies used at the European and international levels, with their respective social implications. The second part focuses on the Spanish case, with the different impacts the term produces at the local level. The third and final part focuses on the terminology of refugee children and opens the discussion on scapegoating in Spain. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe evolution and adaptation of journalistic practice in response to discourses taking place in networked and shared media environments and the implications of same have been the focus of much academic attention in recent years. This paper examines the agenda-setting potential of Twitter and considers how this feeds into and affects journalistic output. It does so by applying a Critical Discourse Analysis framework in considering whether reportage on particular news events are re-framed in the aftermath of Twitter campaigns. In August (...) 2016, the Irish media’s framing of the Hawe murder suicide via sourcing, emphasis and agency drew widespread criticism on social media for its perceived ‘omission’ or ‘significant silence’ about one of the victims, Clodagh Hawe, from the narrative in favour of a greater focus on the perpetrator, Alan Hawe. Criticism of the initial coverage of the incident was in large part driven by the #hernamewasclodagh social media campaign. This paper takes an intertextual... (shrink)

In reading Benjamin’s essay on Kafka, it could be inferred that the confrontation with the Law of the Father is the axis of both Kafka’s life and of his storytelling. This is evident in the division of his literary world into two opposing worlds: the first is that of the home and the office inhabited by a violent father, who is joined by clerks and scriveners. The second is the world of the swamp, overtaken by nameless, primordial forces and populated (...) by exiled sons, as well as by animals. These include Odradek, the protagonist of “The Cares of a Family Man.” Following Marx, Adorno, and Agamben, Odradek is portrayed as a complex entity, residing on four levels of economy: It is a signifier in the economy of signification; a living being in the libidinal economy; an object in the economy of commodities; and a stripped object in the economy of utilization. On each of these levels, Odradek is seen as a disruption of the economy. Odradek could thus be viewed as a site of the hospitality of the economy’s Other, the rav. As the rav’s delegate, Odradek is a bone in the throat, resisting assimilation into any given economy. (shrink)