Freges theory of reference university of notre dame. Gottlob freges contributions to philosophy of language are so numerous and so fundamental that it is difficult to imagine the field without them. Philosophy of language, philosophical investigation of the nature of language. Freges theorem and foundations for arithmetic stanford.
At the same time, the considerations may serve to illustrate some general. Philosophy of mathematics 1991, it is dummetts chief contribution to frege scholarship. It argues that it is primarily a semantic thesis, an essential ingredient of freges conception of compositionality. In our example, accordingly, the reference of the expressions the point of intersection of a and b and the point of intersection of b and c would be the same, but not their senses. This difference derives from his interest in language as an expression of thought, not in the rules governing linguistic usage and linguistic understanding. In the philosophy of language, the distinction between concept and object is attributable to the german philosopher gottlob frege. In the novel through the lookingglass by lewis carroll, the messenger says he passed nobody on the road, and he is met with the observation, nobody walks. Freges contribution to philosophy of language oxford. Introduction frege taught us to strictly distinguish between the logical and the psychological. We will of course use upper case when referring to freges book. The first section below considers why a philosophical investigation of language mattered at all for frege, the mathematician, and why it should have mattered to him.
It is assumed here that the primary objective of a philosophy of language is to illuminate the role which language plays in linking thought with the world and that it should be judged in terms of its effectiveness in doing that. One of the tasks of the philosophy of language is to explain the relations between linguistic expressions and the world in virtue of which certain. Its main support is jerry fodors argument that our only plausible psychological models of cognitive processes presuppose it. One ongoing theme in freges writings is the complicated relationship between language and thought. Freges term for the sense of a sentence is gedank, thought.
Arithmetic, for pure thought, in from frege to godel. The strengths and weaknesses of freges critique of locke. Oxford university press on behalf of the mind association. Thoughts are expressed by propositional questions which are not assertoric as well as interrogative sentences which are assertoric, indicating that the assertion of a thought is a separate issue from its truth value e.
Effectively, frege argued that the meaning of sentences has nothing to do with what goes on in the head, and everything to do with their logical structure. Frege saw the formulae of mathematics as the paradigm of clear, unambiguous writing. In othershe considers critically some interpretations of frege, and develops the argument for a sound understanding of freges thought. Gottlob frege 18481925 is most celebrated today for his contributions to mathematical logic and the philosophy of language. And it was praised, of course, by wittgenstein, early and late. Frege initially thought that he could connect the logical and semantic aspects of identity statements by a cla im about the constituents of the logical form of identity statements, that they could be ana lyzed metalinguisticaly as relations between expressions. The most influential proposal is by dummett in his freges philosophy of language 10 pp. It is a well organized, reasonably priced onestop frege shop. A logical inquiry 1918 gottlob frege from translations from the philosophy of gottlob frege in the philosophy of language 6th edition. Philosophy of language is a sustained, systematic analysis of freges thought, omitting only the issues in philosophy of mathematics. Freges work abounds in subtle distinctions, and avoids all the usual fallacies which beset writers on logic.
His symbolism, though unfortunately so cumbrous as to be very dif. No one has figured more prominently in the study of german philosopher gottlob frege than michael dummett. Moravcsik is professor of philosophy at stanford university. Reviewed by michael beaney, university of york this book collects together all the papers that tyler burge has published on frege to date, together with a substantial 68page introduction and postscripts to four of the. He was the first to raise the issue of meaning by formulating an organized theory of meaning for a part of natural language as the theory of meaning is at the core of philosophy of language. The referent of a sentence is its truth valueeither the true or the false. Frege, on thought happiness frequency, serotonin, dopamine and endorphin release music, binaural beats healing music greenred productions relaxing music 903 watching live now. Sense and reference for sentences the sense of a sentence is a thought not a mental object though. 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. It is true that, in contrast with freges and russells works, the tractatus is an opaque piece, whose claims and even more, the.
He seems to take such entities to be structured and composed out of the senses of the component words of a sentence. The laws of thought and the power of thinking matthias haase universitat basel 1. L4 words signify or mean the components of what language is meant to communicate. The language of thought hypothesis holds that propositional attitudes are causes of behavior and identical to relations between subjects and tokens in a languagelike system of mental representation.
Freges claims about indexicals, and to a lesser extent proper names, makes it clear that his notion of sense is different from what is now ordinarily understood as linguistic meaning. Ties in with oups recent and forthcoming publications of dummetts own books see below. However, dummetts epistemological interpretation of the idea of. This is the second volume in a corrected paperback edition. Frege 18481925 was an eccentric german mathematics professor who fundamentally shaped the philosophical tendency known as analytic philosophy with his incredibly innovative fulllength logical works, and even more with short philosophical essays that rigorously and systematically explored the nature of language and its relation to human. Philosophy of language has been highly influential. Begriffsschrift a formula language, modeled upon that of arithmetic. It is too convenient not to be used in introductory courses on frege. Wittgensteins other major influence was bertrand russell 18721970, with whom he studied at cambridge. John perry, paper in the blackwells companion november david wiggins, freges problem of the morning star and the evening star, in. Consider, for instance, the hoary problem of nonbeing.
But by the time of g rundlagen, frege had desist ed from. This doctrine has deeply influenced the analytic tradition in the philosophy of mind, language and logic. L3 what language is meant to communicate is thought. This highly acclaimed book is a major contribution to the philosophy of language as well as a systematic interpretation of frege, indisputably the father of analytic philosophy. This article discusses freges apparently metaphysical doctrine that concepts are unsaturated. Begriffsschrift italic and german letters contain, in. The article then turns to freges notion of a thought and, more generally, the distinction between sense and reference. Graeme forbes, article on indexicals in the handbook of philosophical logic, v. The power of freges logic to dispel philosophical problems was immediately recognized. Russell himself was an admirer of freges, and built on freges work to a large. Philosophy of language philosophy of language russells theory of descriptions. Frege and chomsky on thought and language1 moravcsik. Frege also supposed that when a binary function f i.
Pdf language and thought the nature of mind from g. According to frege, any sentence that expresses a singular thought consists frege, g. Freges theory of identity in on sense and reference. In his late writings he seems largely to have abandoned the idea that language was a good guide to the structure of thought, but his reasons are not wholly clear.
Essays on frege, oxford university press, 2005, 432pp. That frege held thesis b with respect to differently structured sentences of natural language. Philosophy of language, the first of two volumes devoted to a survey and discussion of freges philosophy, considered as roughly divisible between the philosophy of language and philosophy of mathematics. Overall, frege locates the core of the problem in a confused understanding of the nature. Frege argues that thoughts may be expressed without thereby being asserted. So it should be remembered that when we use the expression rxy or sometimes rx, y to assert that the objects x and y stand in the relation r, frege would say that r maps the. Freges contribution to philosophy of language semantic scholar.
The limit can, therefore, only be drawn in language. A formula language of pure thought, modelled upon that of arithmetic and was promoted to au. One might have the position that meanings of words in isolation do not exist at all, or. The attack gets extended and sharpened in subsequent writings, from basic laws of arithmetic to the late article thought, now with the focus more on logic. Pdf freges contribution to philosophy of language researchgate. He is the author of understanding language and has published many articles and anthologies on the philosophy of language. Concerning proper names sikander jamil preliminary remarks ottlob frege may be considered as the first intellectual giant in the philosophy of language. The book aims to be the best single edition available for introductory frege courses. Philosophy of language russells theory of descriptions.
Several of the essays illustrate his contention that freges work remains the best starting point for the investigation of problems concerning truth, meaning, and thoughtand language, which are still among the. Think of thoughts as made up of the senses of the words in the sentence. Begriffsschrift, a formula language, modeled upon that of. Priority of thought and language, in his frege and other philosophers. Because its investigations are conceptual rather than empirical, the philosophy of language is distinct from linguistics, though. Language, thought, and logic essays in honour of michael dummett edited by richard g. Fodor to cognitive linguistics in augusto soares da silva, amadeu torres, miguel goncalves orgs.
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