Jack and Jill Search for a Referent
P. F. Strawson criticises Russell's theory of descriptions both in cases of too few and too many referents. What are his reasons, and is he right? Russell's theory of descriptions is part of his effort to take mathematical principles and apply them to language. Strawson makes the case that math is a limited language, and therefore cannot contain something greater than itself, such as ordinary language. Let's play a game with chairs. Jack and Jill are standing in a room. Jack says to Jill, "The chair has a book on it." Jill looks around, scrunches up her face, and replies "Umm, what are you talking about?" For when she looks around she sees no chair. Russell would say that Jack's statement "The chair has a book on it." is false, because there is no chair. Strawson would say that the statement is neither true nor false, because there is no chair. There are two things happening in this statement. There is a subject that is being identified, th