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Single Idea 22320

[filed under theme 9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 3. Objects in Thought ]

Full Idea

What I once called 'objects', simples, were simply what I could refer to without running the risk of their possible non-existence.

Gist of Idea

An 'object' is just what can be referred to without possible non-existence

Source

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Remarks [1930], p.72), quoted by Michael Potter - The Rise of Analytic Philosophy 1879-1930 52 'Simp'

Book Ref

Potter,Michael: 'The Rise of Anaytic Philosophy 1879-1930' [Routledge 2020], p.348


A Reaction

For most of us, you can refer to something because you take it to be an object. For these Fregean influenced guys (e.g. Hale) something is an object because you can refer to it. Why don't they use 'object*' for their things?


The 15 ideas with the same theme [objects as conceptual entities used in reasoning]:

A thing is completely determined by all that can be thought concerning it [Dedekind]
Frege's 'objects' are both the referents of proper names, and what predicates are true or false of [Frege, by Dummett]
The concept 'object' is too simple for analysis; unlike a function, it is an expression with no empty place [Frege]
For Frege, objects just are what singular terms refer to [Frege, by Hale/Wright]
Without concepts we would not have any objects [Frege, by Shapiro]
Late Frege saw his non-actual objective objects as exclusively thoughts and senses [Frege, by Dummett]
Meinong says an object need not exist, but must only have properties [Meinong, by Friend]
There are objects of which it is true that there are no such objects [Meinong]
When I perceive a melody, I do not perceive the notes as existing [Russell]
I call an object of thought a 'term'. This is a wide concept implying unity and existence. [Russell]
An 'object' is just what can be referred to without possible non-existence [Wittgenstein]
If objects are thoughts, aren't we back to psychologism? [Marcus (Barcan)]
There is a modern philosophical notion of 'object', first introduced by Frege [Dummett]
Objects, as well as sentences, can have logical form [Fine,K]
An object is an entity which has identity-conditions [Lowe]