Peirce on Proper Names

This paper offers a developmental account of Peirce’s theory of proper names. It identifies two main dimensions of Peirce’s thinking on proper names, a “taxonomic dimension,” concerning the place of proper names within the taxonomy of signs, and a “maturational dimension,” concerning the different “stages of maturity” a proper name goes through when interpreted. These two dimensions also constitute distinct phases of Peirce’s (continuously evolving) theory of proper names. The chronological reconstruction offered in the paper is also shown to solve some apparent inconsistencies in what Peirce wrote about proper names