Uniqueness
Uniqueness is a distinguishing property of singular definite descriptions. The sentence The present king of France is bald entails that there is a king of France (existence) and that there is exactly one (uniqueness). A point of debate has been the question whether existence and uniqueness should be treated as part of the assertion (as Russell did) or as a presupposition (as Strawson proposed).
Links
Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics
References
- Russell, B. 1905. On denoting, Mind XIV, pp.479-493
- Strawson 1950. On referring, Mind LIX, pp.320-344
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