Literature/1950/Strawson


 * Reprint
 * http://books.google.com/books?id=o1jGSavwQZIC
 * http://books.google.com/books?id=MXwMJKOvrcsC
 * http://books.google.com/books?id=CPKHKvge3Z4C
 * Comment
 * http://books.google.com/books?id=NRDl50cFWmYC

Author

 * P. F. Strawson

Excerpts

 * It is obvious that anyone who uttered the sentence, "The whale is a mammal", would be using the expression "the whale" in a way quite different from the way it would be used by anyone who had occasion seriously to utter the sentence, "The whale struck the ship". In the first sentence one is obviously not mentioning, and in the second sentence one obviously is mentioning, a particular whale. Again if I said, "Napoleon was the greatest French soldier", I should be using the word "Napoleon" to mention a certain individual, but I should not be using the phrase, "the greatest French soldier", to mention an individual, but to say something about an individual I had already mentioned. It would be natural to say that in using this sentence I was talking about Napoleon and that what I was saying about him was that he was the greatest French soldier. But of course I could use the expression, "the greatest French soldier", to mention an individual; for example by saying: "The greatest French solider died in exile". (p. 320)