JUSTIFICATION AND RELATIVE APRIORITY Heimir Geirsson Abstract There is obviously tension between any view which claims that the object denoted is all that names and simple referring terms contribute to propositions expressed by sentences in which they appear and the apparent a posteriority of identity statements containing different but codesignative names. Frege solved the tension by adopting a description theory of names. The direct designation theorist cannot do the same, for that would amount to abandoning the theory. Instead, she has to provide one of two solu- tions; (a) argue that although Hesperus is Hesperus and Hesperus is Phosphorus express the same proposition their epistemic status differs such that one’s justification of the proposition expressed by the former but not the latter is a priori, or (b) argue that both Hesperus is Hesperus and Hesperus is Phosphorus express a priori truths. I will argue for a version of option (a), and that while coref- erential names can be freely substituted in simple belief contexts, they cannot be freely substituted in contexts involving justification. The direct designation theory maintains that proper names and other simple referring terms are nondescriptive in content. On most accounts it furthermore includes the claim that these names and simple referring terms only contribute their referents to the propositions expressed by the sentences in which they occur, thus giving us singular propositions that contain the object denoted. One of the alleged consequences of the direct designation theory is that identity sentences such as 1. Hesperus is Phosphorus and 2. Cicero is Tully express necessary but a posteriori truths. 1 To claim that the class of necessary truths and the class of a priori truths are not 1 I argue for the necessary a posteriori in ‘Necessity, Apriority, and True Identity Statements,’ Erkenntnis 1994: 227–42, and examples of contingent a priori truths in ‘The Contingent A Priori: Kripke’s Two Types of Examples,’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy 1991: 195–205.  Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Ratio (new series) XII 2 June 1999 0034–0006