Russell’s Theory of Descriptions and Its Critics

The introduction to the "theory of descriptions" was written by Bertrand Russell in an article titled "On Denoting" in 1905 and is one of the most studied chapters in analytic philosophy. It is said, "...the choice of whether to accept or reject Russell's theory has had profound consequences for our philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics."

One of Russell's motivations for developing the "theory of descriptions" was his abandonment of his "theory of denoting concepts," which is simply put as "the way of accommodating indirect aboutness." The "theory of denoting concepts" works such that where you are given a definite or indefinite description inside of a sentence, the sentence is made to state not the objects that it corresponds to, but instead, states a concept which contains those objects. Russell devoted a large amount of time trying to work out the details of this theory. The point where Russell changed direction from his "theory of denoting concepts" to his "theory of descriptions," was when he started to accept the views of the Meinongian argument. It was not until later when Russell realized in the years between the "theory of denoting concepts" and his discovery of "the theory of