Problems with frege on sense and reference pdf

During the course of this essay i intend to explicate frege s puzzle regarding the semantics of identical proper names as introduced in on sense and 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. Whats wrong with frege s argument for senses brian kim. Frege s response to this objection is to distinguish between the direct sense and the indirect sense of a sentence. Objections to frege s theories of sense and reference. 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. Frege and the logic of sense and reference by kevin klement. Some exegetical notes focuses on frege on the hierarchy of senses and on the senses of i and now. Consider d and e d the inventor of bifocals invented bifocals. The lecture notes are closely tied to the readings and are designed to help the student comprehend and consider the issues presented. He formulated a radical alternative, his famous theory of sinn and bedeutung. The sense of a name, frege tells us, is not just a mode of presentation. The reasons which seem to favor this are the following.

Frege s puzzle about identity sentences as frege says at the outset of on sense and reference, identity gives rise to. 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. Textor addresses this problem by considering the role of the. Sense and reference by gottlob frege 25 identity1 gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. Frege tends to describe the sense as if it is descriptive in. Philosophy of language reading and guiding questions for seminar 2. He also thinks that declarative sentences express what he calls thoughts. Meaningful pieces of language have two levels of meaning, their sense and their reference. Freges argument about the sense and reference of a sentence. 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. The problem is that there are instances of frege s puzzle for which this solution seems implausible. For ease of reference, the original pagination is indicated in. Gottlob frege on sense and reference excerpt1 english translation of part of gottlob frege.

Equality 1 gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. Frege s notion of sense is somewhat obscure, and neofregeans have come up with different candidates for its role. Well continue to discuss freges theory of sense and reference. Pdf on nov 16, 2014, michael kremer and others published mark textor, frege on sense. The reference of an expression, if it has one, is just what it denotes the objects that it is about. Kripkes frege kripkes frege theory of sense and reference. It is clear that frege has more in mind by sense than just conceptual content mode of presentation. It is argued that an indirect sense must be immediately revelatory of its reference. The relation, as it were, is mediated through the connection of each sign with the same nominatum.

Frege, sense and reference, indirect senses, immediately. Like all noncognitivists, blackburn maintains that the evalua. Lecture notes introduction to philosophy of language. The clarity of its separate parts remains the same the clarity of. Frege and the logic of sense and reference kevin c. Philosophy of language reading and guiding questions for. Pdf outline and assess two solutions to freges puzzle. 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. Informative identities in the begriffsschrift and on.

In particular, i see a way in which frege s sense picks out only the most definite description of a name. As well see, he made a very significant contribution to semantics. Frege s puzzle about identity sentences as frege says at the outset of on sense and reference, identity gives rise to challenging. His solution is to postulate two distinct aspects of meaning, which he labels sense or sinn and reference or bedeutung. Frege s system really a kind of settheory was shown to be inconsistent by. The problem was that if the referent of a sentence is always its truth value. 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. References to gottlob freges works are cited in the text with the. Objections to freges theories of sense and reference. The thought remains the same whether or not odysseus has a reference. Frege s theory lacks an independent identity condition for senses, with the consequence that, although terms with the same reference are interchangeable salva veritate. 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.

Frege s reasons for thinking that a theory of reference must be supplemented with a theory of sense. The problem is that there are named which seem to refer to concepts for example, the concept horse. 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. 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. Frege on sense and reference 2 martin abreu zavaleta.

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. The term frege s puzzle is commonly applied to two related problems. Nor can a thought about etna contain lumps of solidified lava. The relations between name, sense, and denotation thus look like this. Frege on sense and reference ted sider phil language basic idea. 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. Mark textors book, frege on sense and reference, is published in. Now the question is whether that thought is the sense or the reference of a sentence.

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. A relation between objects, or between names or signs of objects. Why does frege think there are indirect senses and. 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. Whats wrong with freges argument for senses brian kim. Frege s argument for the distinction between sense and reference. A free powerpoint ppt presentation displayed as a flash slide show on. We here translate freges terms into english as sense and reference, respectively. Frege s paper, on sense and reference, is widely considered the beginning of analytic philosophy. Frege s new solution to the puzzle finds a way of rejecting 9b and 9c while avoiding the pitfalls we saw above i. The direct sense of a sentence is the stand alone meaning of the sentence, i.

Gottlob freges sense and reference linkedin slideshare. 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. On sense and reference gottlob frege as reprinted in a. 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. On concept and object by gottlob frege first published in the vierteljahrsschrift fi4r wissenschaftliche philosophie, 16 1892.

Unfortunately, the path is rugged and progress is slow. This is the generally overlooked problem about the transition from the begriffsschrift to on sense and reference that i want to discuss. Argues that frege is committed to a doctrine of acquaintance and revelatory senses. The sense of a word is how its reference is presented. 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. That is, the sense of a name determines its denotation. Gottlob frege was neither a linguist nor a philosopher.

There is a still deeper problem with the metalinguistic solution. General principles for frege s doctrine of sense and reference are sated, for both direct and indirect quotation, to be understood iteratively. Why does frege think there are indirect senses and references. Only a more thorough investigation can clarify the issue. Following this, i will assess its success in relation to two potential. Pdf informative identities in the begriffsschrift and. Thus a sentence a b would no longer concern the issue itself, but only our way of using signs. One is a problem about identity statements that frege raised at the beginning of on sense and reference, and another concerns propositional attitude reports. Pdf a problem in the fregechurch theory of sense and. Philosophy of language is considered one of the most important philosophical books of the 20th century. But in the passage from on sense and reference, frege is claiming that the metalinguistic view cannot generate the difference at all.