Keelefilosoofia raamat
definite description, such as "The woman who lives there is a biochemist,"
has subjectpredicate form only superficially, and is really--logically--a trio
of generalizations: it is equivalent to "At least one woman lives there, and at
most one woman lives there, and whoever lives there is a biochemist."
Russell argues for this analysis both directly and by showing that it affords
solutions to each of four vexing logical puzzles: the Problem of Apparent
Reference to Nonexistents, the Problem of Negative Existentials, Frege's
Puzzle about Identity, and the Problem of Substitutivity.
A variety of objections have been raised against Russell's Theory of
Descriptions. P. F. Strawson pointed out that it is at odds with our usual
linguistic habits: though a sentence having "the present King of France" as
its subject presupposes that there is at least one King of France, it is not false
for lack of a King; rather, it cannot be used to make a proper statement at all,
annaabi.ee 
