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Single Idea 18937
[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / e. Empty names
]
Full Idea
Frege's theory of 'sense' showed how sentences with empty names can have meaning and be understood. One just has to grasp the sense of the sentence (the thought expressed), and this is available even in the absence of a referent for the name.
Gist of Idea
If sentences have a 'sense', empty name sentences can be understood that way
Source
report of Gottlob Frege (On Sense and Reference [1892]) by Sarah Sawyer - Empty Names 2
Book Ref
'Routledge Companion to Phil of Language', ed/tr. Russell/Graff Faria [Routledge 2015], p.154
A Reaction
My immediate reaction is that this provides a promising solution to the empty names problem, which certainly never bothered me before I started reading philosophy. Sawyer says co-reference and truth problems remain.
Related Ideas
Idea 13777
A name is a sort of tool [Plato]
Idea 18934
Sentences with empty names can be understood, be co-referential, and even be true [Sawyer]
Idea 18938
Frege's compositional account of truth-vaues makes 'Pegasus doesn't exist' neither true nor false [Sawyer]
Idea 18941
Names don't have a sense, but are disguised definite descriptions [Russell, by Sawyer]
The
33 ideas
from 'On Sense and Reference'
8187
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Frege was strongly in favour of taking truth to attach to propositions
[Frege, by Dummett]
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10510
|
Frege ascribes reference to incomplete expressions, as well as to singular terms
[Frege, by Hale]
|
18772
|
We can treat designation by a few words as a proper name
[Frege]
|
14075
|
Proper name in modal contexts refer obliquely, to their usual sense
[Frege, by Gibbard]
|
10424
|
A Fregean proper name has a sense determining an object, instead of a concept
[Frege, by Sainsbury]
|
9462
|
Frege is intensionalist about reference, as it is determined by sense; identity of objects comes first
[Frege, by Jacquette]
|
18936
|
Frege moved from extensional to intensional semantics when he added the idea of 'sense'
[Frege, by Sawyer]
|
10533
|
We can't get a semantics from nouns and predicates referring to the same thing
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
4893
|
Frege was asking how identities could be informative
[Frege, by Perry]
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18752
|
'The concept "horse"' denotes a concept, yet seems also to denote an object
[Frege, by McGee]
|
22318
|
Frege failed to show when two sets of truth-conditions are equivalent
[Frege, by Potter]
|
18937
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If sentences have a 'sense', empty name sentences can be understood that way
[Frege, by Sawyer]
|
9180
|
Holism says all language use is also a change in the rules of language
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
15597
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Frege's Puzzle: from different semantics we infer different reference for two names with the same reference
[Frege, by Fine,K]
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17002
|
Frege's 'sense' is ambiguous, between the meaning of a designator, and how it fixes reference
[Kripke on Frege]
|
18778
|
Every descriptive name has a sense, but may not have a reference
[Frege]
|
7805
|
Frege started as anti-realist, but the sense/reference distinction led him to realism
[Frege, by Benardete,JA]
|
15155
|
Expressions always give ways of thinking of referents, rather than the referents themselves
[Frege, by Soames]
|
11126
|
'Sense' gives meaning to non-referring names, and to two expressions for one referent
[Frege, by Margolis/Laurence]
|
8164
|
Frege was the first to construct a plausible theory of meaning
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
9817
|
Earlier Frege focuses on content itself; later he became interested in understanding content
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
8171
|
Frege divided the meaning of a sentence into sense, force and tone
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
4954
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Frege uses 'sense' to mean both a designator's meaning, and the way its reference is determined
[Kripke on Frege]
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7304
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Frege explained meaning as sense, semantic value, reference, force and tone
[Frege, by Miller,A]
|
18773
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People may have different senses for 'Aristotle', like 'pupil of Plato' or 'teacher of Alexander'
[Frege]
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4976
|
The meaning (reference) of 'evening star' is the same as that of 'morning star', but not the sense
[Frege]
|
4977
|
In maths, there are phrases with a clear sense, but no actual reference
[Frege]
|
4978
|
The meaning of a proper name is the designated object
[Frege]
|
4979
|
We are driven from sense to reference by our desire for truth
[Frege]
|
4980
|
The meaning (reference) of a sentence is its truth value - the circumstance of it being true or false
[Frege]
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4981
|
The reference of a word should be understood as part of the reference of the sentence
[Frege]
|
18940
|
It is a weakness of natural languages to contain non-denoting names
[Frege]
|
18939
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In a logically perfect language every well-formed proper name designates an object
[Frege]
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