Single Idea 5816

[catalogued under 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 8. Abstractionism Critique]

Full Idea

Frege, rebelling against 'psychologism', identified concepts (and hence 'intensions' or meanings) with abstract entities rather than mental entities.

Gist of Idea

Frege said concepts were abstract entities, not mental entities

Source

report of Gottlob Frege (works [1890]) by Hilary Putnam - Meaning and Reference p.119

Book Reference

'Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds', ed/tr. Schwartz,Stephen P. [Cornell 1979], p.119


A Reaction

This, of course, assumes that 'abstract' entities and 'mental' entities are quite distinct things. A concept is presumably a mental item which has content, and the word 'concept' is simply ambiguous, between the container and the contents.