"Naming and Necessity" (in) Semantics of Natural Language

First edition, first printing. x, 769, [3] pp. Bound in publisher's navy cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Very Good+ with two pages of penciled underlining in the essay "Naming and Necessity," pages otherwise unmarked; light shelfwear, offsetting to endpapers. In a Near Fine dust jacket, age-toned with a hint of foxing. Rare. The first appearance of Saul Kripke's lectures entitled "Naming and Necessity" (spanning pages 253 to 355 of this volume), not to be published separately for another eight years. The work signaled a sea change in late 20th Century philosophy. According to the work's current publisher "it has shaped and continues to shape debates in metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and adjacent areas. It overturned long-established views concerning the relationships between names and descriptions and a priority and necessity, and catalyzed today's thriving essentialist metaphysics.".