Kripke, Saul

"The indexical 'I' is both automatic and universal in reference"

"Modality concerns the structure of reality, not merely our concepts"

"Proper names refer directly without descriptive mediation"

"The essence of water is to be H2O, not to have any particular description"

"Language and reality are intimately connected through causal relations"

"Necessity is not the mother of invention; it is the mother of futile dodges."

"The mind is not a passive receiver of impressions, but an active agent in constituting reality."

"Proper names are rigid designators that refer to the same object in all possible worlds."

"We cannot escape the fundamental questions by retreating into linguistic analysis alone."

"Identity across possible worlds requires a criterion that transcends mere description."

"The intuition that water is H2O in every possible world guides our metaphysics."

"Essentialism is not mysticism; it is the recognition of real distinctions in nature."

"We are prisoners of language only if we accept the prison as inevitable."

"The modal realist accepts counterfactual truths as genuinely about alternate possibilities."

"Skepticism about the external world rests on an assumption we need not grant."

"Reference does not depend on descriptions but on causal history and intention."

"To understand meaning, we must understand the reference-fixing intentions of speakers."

"The same substance in different possible worlds constitutes the same essence."

"Philosophical intuitions are data, not obstacles to overcome in theory-building."

"The argument from design survives scrutiny better than atheistic complacency suggests."

"We mistake the map for the territory when we confuse language with reality itself."

"Rigid designation explains how we can talk about the same object counterfactually."

"The causal theory of reference vindicates our ordinary understanding of how names work."

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence in metaphysical inquiry."

"The baptism of an object fixes its name, but does not determine all its properties."

"Identity across time requires neither continuity of matter nor continuity of form."

"We project our modal intuitions onto the world at peril of empirical error."

"The puzzle of the Morning Star and Evening Star reveals deep truths about reference."

"Proper names carry no descriptive content, only historical chains of communication."

"Counterfactual reasoning reveals genuine objective facts about possibility."