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Philosophy

The Semantics of Fictional Names and Truth in Fiction

Quick fact

Philosopher Saul Kripke famously argued that fictional names are not abbreviations for descriptions—'Holmes' does not simply mean 'the detective who lives at 221B Baker Street'—because descriptions can be false in the story.

Why this is interesting

We all know Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective, yet we confidently say 'Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street.' How can a sentence about a person who never existed be true?