Single Idea 7331

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

Full Idea

For a theory of meaning for a fragment of natural language, what Davidson requires, in effect, is that the sentences be translatable into the language of Frege's symbolic logic.

Gist of Idea

A theory of meaning comes down to translating sentences into Fregean symbolic logic

Source

report of Donald Davidson (In Defence of Convention T [1973]) by David Macey - Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory

Book Reference

Miller,Alexander: 'Philosophy of Language' [UCL Press 1998], p.276


A Reaction

This assumes the adequacy of Fregean logic, which seems unlikely. Is this the culmination of Leibniz's dream of a fully logical language - so that anything that won't fit into our logical form is ruled (logical positivist style) as meaningless?