Thus, it apparently cannot be a referring term either, since its alleged referent doesn't exist.
Indexicals, on the other hand, are a fundamentally different sort of referring term, for which an entirely different sort of theory is appropriate.
Referring terms are ambiguous when the referents of the term differ from each other in sufficiently important ways.
Referring terms are ambiguous when the referents of a term differ from each other in sufficiently important ways.
Dictionary definitions of referring terms are usually just descriptions of the important features of the referents of those terms.
As such, they are not to be viewed as referring terms but, rather, as "incomplete symbols".
Indeed, it is about nothing at all: for definite descriptions are not referring terms, but existential quantifiers.
The argument seems straightforward so long as we read "Father" and "Son" as merely singular referring terms.
And definite descriptions, given Russell's view of definite descriptions, are not genuine referring terms but are instead quantificational expressions.
Theories of proper names will be considered first, in Section 2, as proper names are considered by many to be referring terms par excellence.
