Making and Unmaking (Im)Possible Worlds: Language Games, Naming, and Necessities in ‘The Real Thing’

This article reads "The Real Thing" as a text about the process of naming and the logical function of proper names. Moving from Frege's and Wittgenstein's considerations on sense and reference, the article turns to Saul Kripke's Name and Necessity in order to understand James's strategic use of the name "Monarch" in the story's signifying structure, with reference to the philosopher's theory of the possible worlds. Though foregrounding and anticipating the logical functioning of language in the processes of signification and reference, "The Real Thing" nonetheless signals the need, in order to produce knowledge, to shift from the domain of pure logic to that of epistemology.