© 2000 by Mind Association
Embedded definite descriptions: Russellian analysis and semantic puzzles
Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA
A sentence containing a number of definite descriptions, each lying within the scope of its predecessor, is naturally read as asserting the uniqueness of a sequence of objects satisfying the descriptions. The project of providing a general uniform procedure for eliminating embedded definite descriptions that gets this and other logical forms right is impeded by several puzzles.