Kripke's Naming and Necessity showed

Can you name water without knowing its chemical formula?

Imagine you're thirsty and grab a glass of water without knowing anything about its chemical composition. You just know it's what you need to drink.

Kripke's idea is that knowing 'water is H₂O' is like knowing the recipe for water without needing to taste it every time. The term here is "necessary a posteriori."

Example

You know that water is H₂O without having to test every drop.

Remember this

Knowing 'water is H₂O' is both essential and learned through experience, not just intuition.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related concepts

A priori and a posteriori

Can you know something is true without ever seeing it?

Nominalism

Nominalism claims only particular things exist, universals are just names

Principle of sufficient reason

Every contingent fact has a sufficient reason

Problem of universals

Universals question independent existence

Rigid designator

Kripke's rigid designators refer to the same thing in all possible worlds

Logical positivism

Logical positivism's verification principle claims only empirically verifiable statements are meaningful

Swipe through 100 ML concepts daily

Open Pocket Polymath