The Short Long Life of Russell’s Denoting Concepts

The paper focuses on Russell’s Theory of Denoting Concepts [TDC], to see why he did both adopt and very soon abandon it. With regard to TDC, I detect three
kinds of problems: ontological (the denotation of empty denoting concepts), logical (the infinite regress of meaning in the case of denoting concepts) and epistemological (the relation between denoting concepts and acquaintance). I discuss here only the last two problems. In the first part I discuss the inner logical difficulty of TDC, whereas in the second part I analyze the connection of denoting concepts with the Principle of Acquaintance [PoA].