Necessary identity and necessary existence

Timothy Williamson

Oxford University

pp. 168-175

in: Rudolf Haller, Johannes L. Brandl (eds), Wittgenstein — eine neubewertung/Wittgenstein — towards a re-evaluation, Berlin, Springer, 1990

Abstract

Queen Anne is dead. That sentence expresses a truth; it does so because its subject term refers to someone — Queen Anne — who satisfies its predicate, and therefore — if death is the end of existence — no longer exists. But then what is left for "Queen Anne' to refer to?