Problems with frege on sense and reference pdf

In fact, frege s argument does show that there is a distinction between sense and reference, but what it does not show is that senses have anything to do with thought. The lecture notes are closely tied to the readings and are designed to help the student comprehend and consider the issues presented. The problem was that if the referent of a sentence is always its truth value. Lecture notes introduction to philosophy of language. Class notes 6 sense and reference, page 4 frege s solution, to separate sense and reference, allows the compositionality of meaning even when some terms lack reference. Frege s puzzle about identity sentences as frege says at the outset of on sense and reference, identity gives rise to challenging. This is about how we should understand frege s move from the early metalinguistic solution to frege s puzzle to the solution in terms of sameness and difference in sense. That is, the sense of a name determines its denotation. One is a problem about identity statements that frege raised at the beginning of on sense and reference, and another concerns propositional attitude reports. Sinn to accommodate difficulties in his early theory of meaning 965 first, if the entire significance of a sentence consists of its truth value, it follows that the sentence will have the same significance if we replace a word of the sentence with one having an identical reference, as this will not change its truth value. Objections to freges theories of sense and reference. Whats wrong with freges argument for senses brian kim. For ease of reference, the original pagination is indicated in.

Nor can a thought about etna contain lumps of solidified lava. Freges theory of sense and reference although frege accepted something like the naive theory in his early work, he later rejected it for reasons like those given above. His father, alexander, a headmaster of a secondary school for girls, and his mother, auguste nee bialloblotzky, brought him up in the. Like all noncognitivists, blackburn maintains that the evalua. Some exegetical notes focuses on frege on the hierarchy of senses and on the senses of i and now. Textor addresses this problem by considering the role of the. The reasons which seem to favor this are the following.

The term frege s puzzle is commonly applied to two related problems. Pdf mark textor, frege on sense and reference researchgate. Frege and the logic of sense and reference by kevin klement. As well see, he made a very significant contribution to semantics. Pdf outline and assess two solutions to freges puzzle. Whats wrong with frege s argument for senses brian kim. Besides inventing modern logic, he could reasonably be credited with the discovery and original formulation of many problems that are still studied by contemporary philosophers of language. Following this, i will assess its success in relation to two potential. Notes to gottlob frege stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. The relations between name, sense, and denotation thus look like this. The sense of a word is how its reference is presented.

Pdf on nov 16, 2014, michael kremer and others published mark textor, frege on sense. The thought remains the same whether or not odysseus has a reference. Argues that frege is committed to a doctrine of acquaintance and revelatory senses. The problem is that there are named which seem to refer to concepts for example, the concept horse. According to the curriculum vitae that the 26year old frege filed in 1874 with his habilitationsschrift, he was born on november 8, 1848 in wismar, a town then in mecklenburgschwerin but now in mecklenburgvorpommern. Well continue to discuss freges theory of sense and reference. Objections to frege s theories of sense and reference. Frege s paper, on sense and reference, is widely considered the beginning of analytic philosophy. The indirect sense of a sentence is its meaning to the subject of the main clause thought. 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. On concept and object by gottlob frege first published in the vierteljahrsschrift fi4r wissenschaftliche philosophie, 16 1892. Frege tends to describe the sense as if it is descriptive in. Meaningful pieces of language have two levels of meaning, their sense and their reference.

Philosophy of language reading and guiding questions for. Frege s new solution to the puzzle finds a way of rejecting 9b and 9c while avoiding the pitfalls we saw above i. He also thinks that declarative sentences express what he calls thoughts. Philosophy of language reading and guiding questions for seminar 2. Freges argument about the sense and reference of a sentence. On sense and reference gottlob frege as reprinted in a.

A relation between objects, or between names or signs of objects. Philosophy of language is considered one of the most important philosophical books of the 20th century. It is clear that frege has more in mind by sense than just conceptual content mode of presentation. The reference of an expression, if it has one, is just what it denotes the objects that it is about. It is argued that an indirect sense must be immediately revelatory of its reference. In my paper, i shall not try to spell out in full detail how it is that the problems and solutions i am attributing to frege are manifested in the letter of the fregean texts. Sense and reference by gottlob frege 25 identity1 gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. Pdf informative identities in the begriffsschrift and. 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. Frege on sinn and bedeutung aka on sense and reference frege has had an enormous influence on work in the philosophy of language in the past hundred years. Only a more thorough investigation can clarify the issue. Why does frege think there are indirect senses and references. Kripkes frege kripkes frege theory of sense and reference. Locke reference sense 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.

He formulated a radical alternative, his famous theory of sinn and bedeutung. Frege s puzzle about identity sentences as frege says at the outset of on sense and reference, identity gives rise to. This is the generally overlooked problem about the transition from the begriffsschrift to on sense and reference that i want to discuss. Frege and the logic of sense and reference kevin c. The relation, as it were, is mediated through the connection of each sign with the same nominatum.

Frege on sense and reference 2 martin abreu zavaleta. Equality 1 gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. Consider d and e d the inventor of bifocals invented bifocals. Why does frege think there are indirect senses and. Informative identities in the begriffsschrift and on.

Blackburns quasirealism and the frege geach problem simon blackburns expressivist account of moral language is meant to address the particular faults of emotivism as it pertains to the frege geach problem. Frege, sense and reference, indirect senses, immediately. Sense now it is plausible to connect with a sign name, word combination, expression not only the designated object, which may be called the nom. The clarity of its separate parts remains the same the clarity of. Mark textors book, frege on sense and reference, is published in. Frege s notion of sense is somewhat obscure, and neofregeans have come up with different candidates for its role. Frege s system really a kind of settheory was shown to be inconsistent by. Pdf a problem in the fregechurch theory of sense and. Suppose that a fregean bites the bullet, and follows the strategy of responding to instances of frege s puzzle by supplying a di erence in meaning. References to gottlob freges works are cited in the text with the. Frege used the word concept to refer to the sort of thing which is the reference of a predicate, and object to refer to the sort of thing which is the reference of a name. A free powerpoint ppt presentation displayed as a flash slide show on. His solution is to postulate two distinct aspects of meaning, which he labels sense or sinn and reference or bedeutung. The direct sense of a sentence is the stand alone meaning of the sentence, i.

The problem is that there are instances of frege s puzzle for which this solution seems implausible. Frege s reasons for thinking that a theory of reference must be supplemented with a theory of sense. The essence of frege s 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. The sense of a name, frege tells us, is not just a mode of presentation. We here translate freges terms into english as sense and reference, respectively. Frege s response to this objection is to distinguish between the direct sense and the indirect sense of a sentence. Frege on sense and reference ted sider phil language basic idea. In particular, i see a way in which frege s sense picks out only the most definite description of a name. Unfortunately, the path is rugged and progress is slow. Freges theory of sense and reference that marcus family home.

Frege s argument for the distinction between sense and reference. Gottlob freges sense and reference linkedin slideshare. In my understanding of frege s theory, and his definition of the sense, i see a very elegant solution to many of the problems posed by the referential theory of meaning. Frege s theory lacks an independent identity condition for senses, with the consequence that, although terms with the same reference are interchangeable salva veritate. But in the passage from on sense and reference, frege is claiming that the metalinguistic view cannot generate the difference at all. General principles for frege s doctrine of sense and reference are sated, for both direct and indirect quotation, to be understood iteratively. Gottlob frege was neither a linguist nor a philosopher. There is a still deeper problem with the metalinguistic solution.