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Concept
Rigid designator
Summary
In modal logic and the philosophy of language, a term is said to be a rigid designator or absolute substantial term when it designates (picks out, denotes, refers to) the same thing in all possible worlds in which that thing exists. A designator is persistently rigid if it also designates nothing in all other possible worlds. A designator is obstinately rigid if it designates the same thing in every possible world, period, whether or not that thing exists in that world. Rigid designators are contrasted with connotative terms, non-rigid or flaccid designators, which may designate different things in different possible worlds.
The Scholastic philosophers in the Middle Ages developed a theory of properties of terms in which different classifications of concepts feature prominently.
Concepts, and the terms that signify them, can be divided into absolute or connotative, according to the mode in which they signify. If they signify something absolutely, that is, after the manner of substance, they are absolute, for example rock, lion, man, whiteness, wisdom, tallness. If they signify something connotatively, that is, with reference to a subject of inherence, i.e., after the manner of accidents, they are connotative, for example, white, wise, tall.
Both connotative and absolute concepts can be used to signify accidents, but since connotative concepts signify with a reference to a subject of inherence, they can refer to object with different definitions and properties (i.e. with different essences). For example, large, as a connotative concept, can signify objects with many distinct essences: a man, a lion, a triangle can be large.
On the other hand, absolute concepts signify objects that have the same definitions and properties. For example, the concept of gold, as an absolute concept, can signify only objects with the same definitions and properties (i.e. with the same essence).
The notion of absolute concepts was then revived by Saul Kripke, with the name “rigid designation”, in the lectures that became Naming and Necessity, in the course of his argument against descriptivist theories of reference, building on the work of Ruth Barcan Marcus.
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