Kripke on Propositions in Intensional Contexts

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of intensional contexts that Saul Kripke presents in “A Puzzle about Belief.” In an effort to resolve this seeming paradox, I identify an assumption that underlies most analyses of intensional contexts: that the content of the subject’s belief is simply the proposition, and that statements containing co-referential names must somehow have different propositions. I argue against this assumption and propose a different understanding of the content of the subject’s belief that allows that the propositions of sentences may be the same while maintaining that the content of someone’s belief when these statements are put in intensional contexts may be different.