Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough (21 page)

Cloud’s Link to Sephiroth and Kripke’s Causal-Historical Theory

Given the problems that face Russell’s descriptivist theory of reference, Kripke developed another account of how proper names come to refer, thinking specifically about how we use names in counterfactual situations (those situations that did not happen in the actual world but that could have, had particular states of affairs been different).
⁸
When we ask the question, “What if Cloud Strife never defeated Sephiroth?” are we talking about the same individual we know from
FFVII
, only in the situation where he didn’t defeat Sephiroth, or are we identifying a completely different individual with the same name who did not defeat Sephiroth? Kripke thinks that most of us believe the former: we are all thinking of the familiar individual, but in this scenario, he did not defeat Sephiroth. This leads Kripke to claim that proper names are rigid designators—they refer to the same individual across all possible counterfactual states of affairs of which we can conceive.

Why is this problematic for Russell’s descriptivism? Well, if proper names are rigid designators, then it follows that names cannot offer the same semantic contribution to sentences that definite descriptions can. Contrary to proper names, most definite descriptions are understood as
flaccid designators
, or descriptions that
do not
refer to the same referent in every possible counterfactual state of affairs of which we can conceive. Take, for example, the definite description (1), “the Materia blade-wielding protagonist of
FFVII
.” When we use (1) to pick out a referent in a counterfactual state of affairs, does it follow necessarily that we are picking out Cloud Strife? Of course, in the actual state of affairs (1) picks out Cloud Strife, but need it pick out Cloud Strife in every possible counterfactual situation? Is it not possible that Tifa Lockheart satisfied (1) instead?
What if
Cloud Strife died at a young age in Nibelheim and never went on to join SOLDIER? Can’t we imagine things being so different that someone else picked up a Materia blade and ultimately defeated Sephiroth in an adventure titled
FFVII
? Of course we can, so it follows that (1) doesn’t pick out the same referent in all counterfactual states of affairs.

If we have two names—or terms, for that matter—that refer to different things, then it follows that those terms mean different things. For example, if we use the terms “phoenix down” and “hi-potion” in a sentence, and we also know that “phoenix down” refers to a life-replenishing feather of a Phoenix bird, and “hi-potion” refers to a hit point-restoring drink, then we also know that the terms “phoenix down” and “hi-potion” mean different things. This amounts to saying that if two terms refer to different things, then they must mean different things. Therefore, because the name “Cloud Strife” refers to the same referent in all possible counterfactual situations and (1) does not refer to the same referent in all possible counterfactual situations, then the proper name “Cloud Strife” and (1) fail to offer the same, or even similar, semantic contributions to the sentences in which they occur, contra Russell.

If proper names are the kinds of linguistic entities that refer to the same thing in every possible counterfactual scenario, how can Kripke explain how proper names refer at all? In short, he relies on an account concerning causation through history. Names come into existence in a “dubbing ceremony,” the occasion where an individual is first referred to by the name. A name refers to an individual if it can be traced back through a causal-historical chain that originated with a dubbing ceremony. Let’s consider a
Final Fantasy
example. Imagine that a baby is born in the small mountain village of Nibelheim, and his parents name him and subsequently refer to him by the name “Cloud Strife.” The people of Nibelheim are members of a community of speakers who use the name “Cloud Strife” to refer to the child because, over time and through communication originating with his parents, they have passed the name from person to person. Due to this “name transference” from person to person and the fact that such transference ultimately leads back to the original dubbing ceremony by the parents, the name “Cloud Strife” refers to Cloud Strife.
⁹
For Kripke, all proper names refer to the referents they do because of a similar causal-historical chain among a community of speakers—no definite description need be associated with the name in order to successfully refer. The minor role that definite descriptions play in Kripke’s theory of referring is not to
determine the referent
of a proper name, but only to help
fix the referent
in cases where the referent is not present.

Again, we must inquire into what Kripke’s causal-historical theory of referring has to say about the relationship between referents who share a proper name across
FF
worlds. Recall that our intuitions for the proper name “Cid” are that no special relation holds between the referents, whereas the proper name “Cloud Strife” has referents related through identity. Only when two causal-historical chains are grounded in the same dubbing ceremony do the names transferred in the causal-historical chain have identical referents. In the case of the name “Cid,” the referents who share the name across
FF
worlds will be the same referent if, and only if, they are grounded in the same naming ceremony. It is quite clear that none of the referents of the proper name “Cid” share histories, let alone dubbing ceremonies. Presumably, Cid, the King of Lindblum, and Cid, the pilot of the
Highwind
, were given the name “Cid” in very different dubbing ceremonies. Therefore, Kripke’s causal-historical theory of referring squares with our intuitions that the referents of “Cid” across the
FF
worlds are unrelated.

For the name “Cloud Strife,” it would seem that the referent in
FFVII
has a history similar to the referent in
FF Tactics
. For example, both are trained with a Materia blade, and both interact with a woman named Aeris Gainsborough. There are differences in their histories as well. Some of these differences are very important, such as their birthdays, as mentioned previously. Different histories entail different dubbing ceremonies, because this event would be just one part of an individual’s history. Therefore, Kripke’s causal-historical theory runs counter to our intuitions about the referents of the name “Cloud Strife” in
FFVII
and
FF Tactics
.
¹⁰

Yuna, the character in
FFX
and
FFX2
, appears to give an endorsement of Kripke’s view. You might remember that at the start of
FFX2
, Yuna sees a video of a man who looks very much like Tidus from
FFX
, whom she loved and thought was dead. After seeing this video, she begins to question whether this individual is Tidus. As a part of this questioning, Yuna and her friends attempt to track down the individual in the video and determine whether he is the same person she knew and loved in
FFX
. In investigating the history of the man in the video and trying to compare it to what she knows of Tidus, Yuna is attempting to determine whether the individuals share a causal history and, in doing so, establish his/their identity/identities.

Did Balamb Garden Move? Problems with Kripke’s Causal-Historical Theory

Perhaps the most significant problem with Kripke’s account is the “qua problem.” It is possible that when hearing a name, someone could be
categorically mistaken
about the referent of the name. Let’s consider an example from
FFVIII
. In this game, the mercenary force SeeD has a mobile headquarters called Balamb Garden. So, someone could say, “Balamb Garden has moved,” and an uninformed listener could mistake the institution referenced for a person, as if this person has found a new home. Thinking that “Balamb Garden” names a person who has changed residences, the speaker’s further uses of the name “Balamb Garden” will be categorically mistaken. In other words, instead of using the name to talk about an institution, this speaker is, mistakenly, using the name to talk about a person. And persons fall in a different category of things than institutions. Given this mistake, our intuitions say that the individual fails to refer to Balamb Garden, although it seems clear that he is a part of the causal-historical chain of the proper name “Balamb Garden.” Therefore, being a part of the causal-historical chain of a proper name is not enough to successfully refer to the referent of the proper name. One response to this problem is to require a definite description to be associated with the name in mind. Regarding this example, a definite description could be “the mercenary force begun by Cid and Edea Kramer, located on the continent of Balamb.” But such a response would be a mild concession to descriptivist theories of reference, certainly not in the spirit of Kripke’s causal-historical account.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Neither theory fully captures our intuitions surrounding the proper names “Cid” and “Cloud Strife.” So, where do we go from here? Has this philosophical discussion been a waste of time? Can we really hope for a theory of referring that squares with all of our intuitions? In all likelihood, some kind of synthesis of descriptivism and a causal-historical theory may be closer to the complete theory of reference that philosophers of language are seeking. We need to achieve a “reflective equilibrium” between our theory and our ordinary intuitions. In other words, our theory must be revised in light of our intuitions, and our intuitions must be revised in light of our theory. Although neither is free from problems, the descriptivist theory and the causal-historical theory provide the starting components in formulating a unified theory of reference that can enter into a reflective equilibrium with intuition. What must be realized is that in philosophy, starting in the right place can be just as difficult as finishing in the right place, and surely no one would think that starting is a waste of time.

NOTES

1
We would like to thank Ruth Tallman for her helpful comments on previous drafts of this chapter.

2
A British-born philosopher, whose most well known contribution to philosophy was the coauthored work
Principia Mathematica
with Alfred North Whitehead. Russell offered a rigorous philosophical analysis of the definite article
the
, which he used in order to offer accounts of how names refer and the semantic contribution names make to the sentences in which they occur.

3
Russell had another argument for names being abbreviations of definite descriptions. Consider if someone were to hear you utter the name “Cloud Strife.” How would you reply if the person asked who Cloud Strife was? You might say, “The Materia blade- wielding protagonist of
Final Fantasy VII
.” This amounts to saying that in everyday, common usage, what we mean when we say a proper name is simply a definite description.

4
An American-born philosopher who has made numerous contributions to both the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. He is currently tenured at UC Berkeley. Searle critiqued Russell’s descriptivism not in order to supplant it, but to offer a modified descriptivist theory.

5
An American-born philosopher and logician who has had an enormous impact in numerous areas of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, logic, and the philosophy of language. He is currently professor emeritus at Princeton University. Kripke’s thorough critique of all descriptivist accounts, including Searle’s modified version, gave him a clear path to offer a separate and radically different theory of reference.

6
In the world of
Final Fantasy X
, the Summoner is supposed to perish after defeating Sin, but let’s pretend that the death of the Summoner Schmidt is not the orthodox death of a Summoner.

7
The past of Spira is still the same in this fictional telling, as Yunalesca, Gandof, Ohalland, and Yocun were awarded the title High Summoner for defeating Sin before Schmidt.

8
What exactly are counterfactual situations? Simply, they are hypothetical scenarios where the facts of these states of affairs are contrary to the actual state of affairs, the actual facts. Talking about counterfactuals is like talking about what the world could be like or what the world would be like if different events transpired.

9
Of fundamental importance to Kripke’s account is the transference of the name from person to person, but not just any kind of name transference will do. He added a requirement in order for an utterance of a name to successfully refer. In
Naming and Necessity
, Kripke said, “When the name is ‘passed from link to link,’ the receiver of the name must . . . intend when he learns it to use it with the same reference as the man from whom he heard it” (Saul Kripke,
Naming and Necessity
[Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980], p. 96).

10
In this case, however, we might want to admit that our intuitions are wrong, because clearly two individuals cannot be the same person if they have different histories. The identity of two objects entails that these objects share every property, and differing histories result in differing properties.

CONTRIBUTORS

Party Menu

Robert Arp
is a Summoner, not a chick Summoner like Sarah Fisk, but a dude Summoner who moonlights as a research associate through the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences, Buffalo.

Michel S. Beaulieu
is a Warrior who has lost his way, and, although he teaches history and is the co-director of the Lakehead Social History Institute at Lakehead University, all of his best weapons have yet to be discovered. His attempts to level up include the books
The Lady Lumberjack: An Annotated Collection of Dorothea Mitchell’s Writings
(2005) and
Essays in Northwestern Ontario Working Class History
(2008).

Jason P. Blahuta
is a Summoner who married his Final Fantasy and is an associate professor of philosophy at Lakehead University. When he is not researching Machiavelli, Asian philosophy, or applied ethics, he is raising two Black Mages and is trying—unsuccessfully—to train a Shih Tzu-Moogle crossbreed in the art of nonelemental magic.

Benjamin Chandler
is a Summoner who has just completed a creative writing PhD at Flinders University, Australia. His research involves heroic literature and modern fantasy from Japan and the West, so he gets to spend a lot of time reading graphic novels, watching cartoons, and playing video games. Oh, and writing fantasy novels. Who needs a Buster Sword when you’ve got Bahamut Zero and the Knights of the Round on your side?

Sarah Fisk
is a Summoner and a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Department at Florida State University. She doesn’t think she would be very good at wielding a sword but can cast some amazing spells.

Kevin Fitzpatrick
is an unsent White Mage trying to hold off the Farplane until he can determine whether life is worth living. In another reality, he is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Bowling Green State University, whose research interests include political philosophy, applied ethics, and epistemology.

Jay Foster
aspires to be a high-level Geomancer with a devastating whirlpool limit break that could be used not only to bring academic meetings to a quick close, but also as a definitive reply to those who doubt global climate change. He received his training in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Toronto, teaches in the Department of Philosophy at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and has coedited a collection of essays on natural capital models for the journal
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
. At the moment he is attempting to improve his job level (actually, any job would do).

David Hahn
is currently a young Rogue still looking for his rat’s tail so he can join the circle of Sages near all of those mountains. He staves off boredom during long airship rides by reading political and classical philosophy.

Greg Littmann
is a Cactaur who teaches philosophy at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. He particularly likes metaphysics, moral philosophy, the philosophy of logic, and giving strangers the 1,000 needles. He plays too many computer games.

Nicolas Michaud
is a Black Mage who teaches philosophy at the University of North Florida and Jacksonville University. He uses this as a cover for his true mission: training his minions to help him take over the world.

Jonah Mitropoulos
is a hybrid-class Red Geomancer, fusing the Red Mage with the Geomancer. This way, he can take a holistic approach to caring for the environment. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree at the University of Connecticut in the field of English.

Alex Nuttall
holds a master’s in philosophy from Purdue University. Alex is currently working on refining his sensibilities by exposing himself to a multitude of quality movies, games, graphic novels, music, and TV shows. In order to alter time to allow him these pursuits, he has begun studying as a Time Mage. He’ll cast Immobilize,
then
Haste.

Kylie Prymus
lacks the ability to wield even the most basic weapon and has been forced to abandon his aspirations of one day becoming an Onion Knight. He is currently developing his inner chi as a Monk, while teaching at Converse College and completing a dissertation on virtue theory and the Internet from Duke University, titled “Virtual Virtue.” Though it rarely works, he prefers to tell everyone that he is putting off finishing his PhD because if he levels up, so will the monsters!

Andrew Russo
is a White Mage—curing the wounds caused by the Cartesian influence on our language. Those in his speech community refer to him with the proper name “Andrew Russo,” and he is a second-year PhD candidate at the University of Oklahoma. His main area of interest is the philosophy of mind, specifically in regard to intentionality and the way a complete philosophy of the mind should be informed by evolutionary psychology.

Jason Southworth
uses the Sphere Grid, so, unlike the other contributors to this volume, he has no class (look, a double entendre). His status includes being an ABD graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. He has contributed articles to several pop culture and philosophy volumes, including
Batman and Philosophy
,
Heroes and Philosophy, Stephen Colbert and Philosophy, X-Men and Philosophy
, and
Supervillains and Philosophy
.

Christopher Wood
assures us (although his uniform may be gray and his eyes aglow) that he holds no affiliation whatsoever with the Shinra corporation, despite holding a master’s in philosophy from Brock University. His research interests include contemporary continental philosophy, Asian philosophy, the history of philosophy, and aesthetics.