Ibn-Sina, Kripke and Umberto Eco on Semantic of Proper and Fictional Names

Abstract

My aim in this paper is to show an inconsistency in Umberto Eco's semantic of fictional names as presented in his latest book: Confessions of a Young Novelist. To prepare the ground for my intervention,  I  first of all give a summary of  Kripke's view on proper and fictional names, then I retrieve and record Ibn-Sina's view on proper names as purely denotative and his version of so-called causal theory of proper names. At the end I show, hopefully, a way out of  Eco's seemingly conflicting views.