Single Idea 16875

[catalogued under 18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 5. Mental Files]

Full Idea

We often need to use a sign with which we associate a very complex sense. Such a sign seems a receptacle for the sense, so that we can carry it with us, while being always aware that we can open this receptacle should we need what it contains.

Gist of Idea

We use signs to mark receptacles for complex senses

Source

Gottlob Frege (Logic in Mathematics [1914], p.209)

Book Reference

Frege,Gottlob: 'Posthumous Writings', ed/tr. Hermes/Long/White etc [Blackwell 1979], p.209


A Reaction

This exactly the concept of a mental file, which I enthusiastically endorse. Frege even talks of 'opening the receptacle'. For Frege a definition (which he has been discussing) is the assigment of a label (the 'definiendum') to the file (the 'definiens').

Related Idea

Idea 16876 We need definitions to cram retrievable sense into a signed receptacle [Frege]