The book combines a historical and philosophical study of Russell's theory of descriptions. It defends, develops and extends the theory as a contribution to natural language semantics while also arguing for a reassessment of the important of linguistic inquiry to Russell's philosophical project.

GRAHAM STEVENS is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. He is the author of The Russellian Origins of Analytical Philosophy, and of numerous articles on Russell and on topics in the philosophy of language.