An overview of Kripke

His famous ideas - the denotational theory of cause and effect, Kripkean (Wittgenstein as expounded by Kripke), a priori contingency and a posteriori necessity. The history of philosophy has always held that whatever is a priori is necessary, and whatever is a posteriori is accidental. He points out, on the other hand, that the a priori is to the necessary - as epistemology is to metaphysics - not only the knowledge of the a posteriori necessary, but also the knowledge of the a priori contingent. This is the theory of a priori contingency and a posteriori necessity that the author seriously challenges the traditional theory.

He makes a strict distinction between the concepts of "a priori" and "necessary". He argues that "a priori" is an epistemological concept and "necessary" is a metaphysical concept, and that the two cannot be confused. Using them for truth, there is a distinction between a priori truth and a posteriori truth in epistemology, and between necessary truth and contingent truth in metaphysics. On the basis of the distinction between a priori truth and necessary truth, the new concepts of "a priori contingent propositions" and "a posteriori necessary propositions" were put forward, and new philosophical conclusions were drawn about the a posteriori nature and necessity of truth in the natural sciences. His philosophical views are regarded as a break with the tradition of modern Western philosophy.

He proposed the theory of causal and historical denotation on the basis of modal logic semantics, and was one of the first creators of the theory. The facsimile theory, which denies that the denotation of a noun is determined by its meaning, asserts that the denotation is determined by the socio-historical chain of transmission associated with the use of the noun.

In 2001, Kripke received the Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy.