This paper offers a response to Ramsey's famous challenge to draw a logical, as opposed to merely syntactical, distinction between names and predicates. Three attempts to meet this challenge are considered, one from Dummett, one from Geach, and one from Brandom. It is shown that none of these adequately addresses Ramsey's challenge. The paper concludes with a response to Ramsey that avoids the pitfalls of the other three replies. The advantage of the view proposed is that there is nothing preventing (...) the set of sentences in consideration from consisting only of atomic sentences. The upshot of my solution is that the distinction between names and properties rests on the presence of relational predicates in a language and the validity of the structural rules of identity, contraction, and cut. (shrink)

This paper aims to unite two seemingly disparate themes in the philosophy of mathematics and language respectively, namely ante rem structuralism and inferentialism. My analysis begins with describing both frameworks in accordance with their genesis in the work of Hilbert. I then draw comparisons between these philosophical views in terms of their similar motivations and similar objections to the referential orthodoxy. I specifically home in on two points of comparison, namely the role of norms and the relation of ontological dependence (...) in both accounts. Lastly, I show that insights from this purported connection can address certain objections to both theories respectively. (shrink)