Philosophy Lexicon of Arguments

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"Fido" -Fido principle, philosophy: Gilbert Ryle's expression for the mistaken assumption that words function as names and therefore must designate something. In the extreme case that the typical dog name Fido stands for "dogness". See also proper names, descriptions, universals, reference, meaning.


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III 32f
RyleVsCarnap: (Review of Carnap's meaning and necessity): Error: "Fido"-Fido principle: because the name "Fido" gets its meaning from the fact that it refers to a single individual. Hence, we are tempted to assume that other words work in the same way.
In his presentation of universals Russell fell into the same trap: according to his view, atomic statements consist of a number of individuals and a universal.
E.g. "Fido is a dog." What does "dog" refer to? According to the "Fido"-Fido theory, it must have its meaning from the fact that it is assigned to a single thing, to being-a-dog or the universal, dog.
III 32f
Statement: Russell's statements were designed by him to make the meaning of sentences. Consequently, he said, they must contain these generic entities, universals.
This is an unjustified step.
"Fido"-Fido principle: RyleVs: reference equals meaning.
III 32 ~
"Fido"-Fido Principle: incorrect equation of reference and condition: Russell: falsely believed that Fido was assigned to being-a-dog, whereas predicates, verbs and adjectives would be related to universals.

Logic Texts
Me I Albert Menne Folgerichtig Denken Darmstadt 1988
HH II Hoyningen-Huene Formale Logik, Stuttgart 1998
Re III Stephen Read Philosophie der Logik Hamburg 1997
Sal IV Wesley C. Salmon Logik Stuttgart 1983
Sai V R.M.Sainsbury Paradoxien Stuttgart 2001

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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2017-11-18