Naming and Necessity by Kripke, Saul - 1980

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980. First edition thus. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. 8vo. [9], 2-172, [4] pp. Full tan cloth, gilt lettering blocked in green with a gold border on each blocking and a leaf stamped in gold on the spine. Green endpapers and pastedowns. Includes a new preface by the author, addenda, and an index. First edition thus, the first separate publication of Kripke's seminal work in metaphysics and in the philosophy of language. The book is drawn from a series of lectures delivered by Kripke at Princeton in 1970, and consists of an examination of a number of philosophical problems including naming and reference, natural kinds, the metaphysical notion of essence, and the nature of necessity. The book has been enormously influential in metaphysics and the philosophy of language and is partly responsible for the reinvigoration of metaphysics within the analytic tradition. A beautiful copy of this landmark work. Very light wrinkling to the jacket's front and spine panels.