Causal Theory of Names

The Causal Theory of Names is a philosophical idea about how names refer to things. It suggests that a name gets its meaning through a social connection or historical link to the object it refers to. Instead of names having intrinsic meanings, they derive their significance from the way they are used in language and the events that connect them to an object. For example, the name "Einstein" refers to the physicist not because of any inherent qualities, but due to the history of people using that name to talk about him.