The essence of freges philosophy of language lies on the fact that he was actually concerned about formulating a theory of meaning which is inseparably connected to the theories of sense and reference. It is a seductive option, recommended by emphasizing the physicolinguistic third of the meaning triad we looked at with grice 3. Hesperus is the name the greeks gave to the first star visible in the. A quick overview of freges theory as it applies to singular terms, predicates, and sentences. In the philosophy of language, the distinction between sense and reference was an innovation. In begriffsschrift, as the title implies, freges primary goal was to present a logical theory. The conclusion is to ascribe to frege an implicit doctrine of acquaintance similar to that of russell. This chapter analyzes freges theory of sense and reference. What i used to call judgeable content is now divided into thought and truthvalue.
Lecture notes introduction to philosophy of language. His solution is to postulate two distinct aspects of meaning, which he labels senseor sinn and referenceor bedeutung. The differentiate between sense and reference english. Pdf mark textor, frege on sense and reference researchgate. The editor is himself an accomplished philosopher with several publications on the origins of. Russells objections to freges theory of sense and reference. Freges response to this objection is to distinguish between the direct sense and the indirect sense of a sentence. Pdf on nov 16, 2014, michael kremer and others published mark textor, frege on sense and reference find, read and cite all the. Philosophy of language 100c sense and reference kyle dickey. Russells objections to freges theory 7 russells objections to freges theory of sense and reference by john r. Freges argument about the sense and reference of a sentence.
Gottlob frege on sense and reference excerpt1 english translation of part of gottlob frege. Now the question is whether that thought is the sense or the reference of a sentence. Gottlob frege 18481925 in general, then, the principle of identity substitution seems to take the following form, where s is a sentence, n and m are names, and s n differs from s m only by the fact that at least one occurrence of m replaces n. The direct sense of a sentence is the stand alone meaning of the sentence, i. Equality 1 gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. On concept and object by gottlob frege first published in the vierteljahrsschrift fi4r wissenschaftliche philosophie, 16 1892. Freges paper, on sense and reference, is widely considered the beginning of analytic philosophy. Freges reasons for thinking that a theory of reference must be supplemented with a theory of sense. As frege says at the outset of on sense and reference, identity gives rise to. A relation between objects, or between names or signs of objects. Equality gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. Sameness is misleading in stating the initial puzzle.
Gottlob frege in 20th century philosophy categorize this paper options. Frege examines the question of how the object which is designated by a sign is related to the meaning which is expressed by the sign. Some exegetical notes focuses on frege on the hierarchy of senses and on the senses of i and now. Frege on sense and reference ted sider phil language basic idea. Although frege says that a sign name or joining words must be composed by both concepts sense and reference, there are words that lack any of these concepts. He also thinks that declarative sentences express what he calls thoughts. Find materials for this course in the pages linked along the left. The aim of this book is to place freges theory of sense and reference in the context of his general philosophical framework and to support the general view that freges theory of sense and reference belongs to the epistemological tradition of modern philosophy that stems from kant vii. Locke referencesense idea reference is an object perceivable by the senses an internal image arising from the memories of sense impressions which i have had and acts, both internal and external which i have performed not saturated with feelings saturated with feelings.
This book is an analysis of freges views on language metaphysics raised in on sense reference, arguably one of the most important philosophical essays of the past hundred years. The story weve been telling has it that a name denotes an individual and an open sentence represents a property, and the sentence obtained by substituting a name for free occurrences of a variable in an open sentence is true if and only if the. The investigations into mathematics and logic also led frege to develop a substantial philosophy of language and theory of semantic content. It provides a thorough introduction to the functionargument analysis and applies freges technique to the central notions of predication, identity, existence and truth. Frege and the logic of sense and reference kevin c. There is in a sense a backward road from references to senses. Frege saw the formulae of mathematics as the paradigm of clear, unambiguous writing. Frege on the thesis that meanings are mental freges argumentagainstthe thesis thatthe meanings oflinguistic expressions i. The clarity of its separate parts remains the same the clarity of. Frege extended the theory of sense and reference to all expressions. Freges puzzle about identity sentences as frege says at the outset of on. On sense and reference gottlob frege as reprinted in a. Argues that frege is committed to a doctrine of acquaintance and revelatory. Frege on sense and reference philosophy 431 september 29, 2015 i.
Notes to gottlob frege stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Sense now it is plausible to connect with a sign name, word combination. For ease of reference, the original pagination is indicated in double square brackets. Freges theory of indirect contexts and the shift of sense and reference in these contexts has puzzled many. Freges on sense and reference philosophy of language. Bedeutung bedeutungswou instead of having a sense sinnvouy.
Frege attributed to every significant expression of the language two distinct but closely related semantic 1 properties its reference or. An explanation of gottlob freges solutions to freges puzzle and the problem of propositional attitude reports using freges theory of sense. Frege on sense and nominatum pdf in the philosophy of language, the distinction between sense and reference was an innovation or significance, but rendered by freges translators as. A predicate expresses a sense that presents a set of objects or, more accurately, the characteristic function of. Philosophy of language 100c sense and reference youtube.
Frege on sense and reference university of notre dame. Freges most explicit use of this is in the beginning of. For everyone who specifies a reference must do so in some way. The reasons which seem to favor this are the following. Pdf on nov 16, 2014, michael kremer and others published mark textor, frege on sense and reference find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. The biggest difference between sense and reference is that the first concept belongs to the linguistic world while the reference belongs to the nonlinguistic world, the real one. In large part, these developments spawned from freges understanding that, in order to derive the postulates of arithmetic from the laws of logic, he. Frege and the logic of sense and reference by kevin klement. For frege, the sense is the sort of meaning a linguistic expression has over and above its putative referent lycan, pg. Redressing freges failure to develop a logical calculus for the theory of.
Frege on sense and nominatum pdf in the philosophy of language, the distinction between sense and reference was an innovation or significance, but rendered. Freges new solution to the puzzle finds a way of rejecting 9b and 9c while avoiding the pitfalls we saw above i. He worked as a mathematics professor at the university of jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philosophy, concentrating on the philosophy of language, logic, and mathematics. Nondescriptive fregean theories will be discussed later. Sense and reference by gottlob frege 25 identity1 gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. Searle it is commonly supposed that russell adopted the theory of descriptions in preference to freges theory of sense and. Create an aipowered research feed to stay up to date with new papers like this posted to arxiv. If every thought requires an owner and belongs to the contents of his consciousness, then the thought has this owner alone. The indirect sense of a sentence is its meaning to the subject of the main clause thought. Unfortunately, the path is rugged and progress is slow.