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Single Idea 19466

[filed under theme 3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 2. Defining Truth ]

Full Idea

It seems likely that the content of the word 'true' is sui generis and indefinable

Clarification

'Sui generis' means of a unique kind

Gist of Idea

The word 'true' seems to be unique and indefinable

Source

Gottlob Frege (The Thought: a Logical Enquiry [1918], p.327 (60))

Book Ref

Frege,Gottlob: 'The Frege Reader', ed/tr. Beaney,Michael [Blackwell 1997], p.327


A Reaction

This is the view I associate with Davidson, though fans of Axiomatic Truth give up defining it, and just describe how it behaves. Defining it is very elusive, but I don't accept that nothing can be said about the contents of the concept of truth.


The 13 ideas from 'The Thought: a Logical Enquiry'

There exists a realm, beyond objects and ideas, of non-spatio-temporal thoughts [Frege, by Weiner]
Thoughts have their own realm of reality - 'sense' (as opposed to the realm of 'reference') [Frege, by Dummett]
A thought is distinguished from other things by a capacity to be true or false [Frege, by Dummett]
Thoughts about myself are understood one way to me, and another when communicated [Frege]
Late Frege saw his non-actual objective objects as exclusively thoughts and senses [Frege, by Dummett]
The word 'true' seems to be unique and indefinable [Frege]
There cannot be complete correspondence, because ideas and reality are quite different [Frege]
A 'thought' is something for which the question of truth can arise; thoughts are senses of sentences [Frege]
The property of truth in 'It is true that I smell violets' adds nothing to 'I smell violets' [Frege]
We grasp thoughts (thinking), decide they are true (judgement), and manifest the judgement (assertion) [Frege]
Thoughts in the 'third realm' cannot be sensed, and do not need an owner to exist [Frege]
A fact is a thought that is true [Frege]
A sentence is only a thought if it is complete, and has a time-specification [Frege]