Reply to Ezcurdia and Gómez-Torrente

Abstract

Contra Ezcurdia, it is argued that my thesis - that substitution of coreferential names or indexicals in attitude ascriptions preserves truth values of propositions semantically expressed, although it often changes truth values of propositions asserted - is compatible with the fact that belief ascriptions play important explanatory roles. Contra Gómez-Torrente, it is argued that although single-word natural kind terms are rigid in Kripke's original sense, natural kind predicates containing them arc neither rigid nor obstinately essential - in the sense of applying to the same individuals in every possible world-state, whether those individuals exist at the world-state or not.