Scientific terms, Conceptual change and Semantic Externalism

It is generally agreed that if the semantic reference of a common name has been successfully fixed in a baptism then the term will refer to the same reference in all possible worlds. But in recent years, Garry Ebbs presented evidence against the idea of sameness of extension across time. According to him, the usage of a common name will not stay stable in future. If it is so then the semantic reference of these terms may be related to accidental events in future. Joseph LaPorte and Henry Jackman independently tried to examine the case and make it compatible with the received view of semantic references. In this essay an alternative approach shall be offered which other approaches can be interpreted as its different manifestations. For this purpose firstly we describe the problem, secondly we summarize the philosophers’ accounts and finally a new solution is offered