Single Idea 16349

[catalogued under 19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 5. Fregean Semantics]

Full Idea

Russell rejected Frege's sense/reference distinction, on the grounds that, if reference is mediated by sense, we lose the idea of direct acquaintance and succumb to Descriptivism.

Gist of Idea

Russell rejected sense/reference, because it made direct acquaintance with things impossible

Source

report of Bertrand Russell (On Denoting [1905]) by François Recanati - Mental Files 1.1

Book Reference

Recanati,François: 'Mental Files' [OUP 2012], p.5


A Reaction

[15,000th IDEA in the DB!! 23/3/2013, Weymouth] Recanati claims Russell made a mistake, because you can retain the sense/reference distinction, and still keep direct acquaintance (by means of 'non-descriptive senses').

Related Ideas

Idea 16348 Descriptivism says we mentally relate to objects through their properties [Recanati]

Idea 16359 Sense is a mental file (not its contents); similar files for Cicero and Tully are two senses [Recanati]