What's in a Name? (Part Three) by Errol Morris

Finally had a chance to catch up with this series Errol Morris has been writing in his New York Times column. Morris’s work as a documentary filmmaker and writer often bring him into proximity with semiotics and philosophy of language, and this series is no exception. The third essay, in particular, explores the concept of “naming” - first elucidating Kripke’s work, then drawing parallels to photography. Definitely a worthwhile read.

The relation of philosophy to history is like that of a father confessor to a penitent and therefore like him ought to have a sensitive, perceptive ear for the secrets of the penitent but, having examined the whole sequence of confessed sins, is then also able to make this manifest to the penitent as something else. Just as the individual making a confession is certainly able not only to reel off the incidents of his life chronologically but also to relate them entertainingly but still does not comprehend them himself, so history certainly is also able to declare the eventful life of the human race with pathos and in a loud voice but must leave it to the senior (philosophy) to explain it and is then able to relish the delightful surprise that at first is almost unwilling to acknowledge the copy provided by philosophy but gradually, to the degree that it familiarizes itself with this philosophical view, eventually regards this as the actual truth and the other as apparent truth.
Kierkegaard, The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates