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General terms, rigidity and the trivialization problem

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Abstract

We defend the view that defines the rigidity of general terms as sameness of designated universal across possible worlds from the objection that such a characterization is incapable of distinguishing rigid from non-rigid readings of general terms and, thus, that it trivializes the notion of rigidity. We also argue that previous attempts to offer a solution to the trivialization problem do no succeed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICREA and Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Genoveva Martí

  2. Departament de Lògica, Història i Filosofia de la Ciència, Universitat de Barcelona, Montalegre, 6, 08001, Barcelona, Spain

    Genoveva Martí & José Martínez-Fernández

Authors
  1. Genoveva Martí
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  2. José Martínez-Fernández
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Correspondence to Genoveva Martí.

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Martí, G., Martínez-Fernández, J. General terms, rigidity and the trivialization problem. Synthese 181, 277–293 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9802-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9802-7

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