Single Idea 7805

[catalogued under 19. Language / B. Reference / 4. Descriptive Reference / a. Sense and reference]

Full Idea

In the Grundlagen of 1884 Frege was an anti-realist, but in Grundgesetze of 1893 he is a realist, who has profited by his interim discovery of the sense/reference distinction.

Gist of Idea

Frege started as anti-realist, but the sense/reference distinction led him to realism

Source

report of Gottlob Frege (On Sense and Reference [1892]) by José A. Benardete - Logic and Ontology

Book Reference

'A Companion of Philosophical Logic', ed/tr. Jacquette,Dale [Blackwell 2002], p.357


A Reaction

This is the germ of the new realist philosophy which seems to be growing out of Kripke and co's causal theory of reference. The very notion of reference is realist (hence Russell's realism).