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Single Idea 8448

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / b. Names as descriptive ]

Full Idea

An object can be determined in different ways, and every one of these ways of determining it can give rise to a special name, and these different names then have different senses.

Gist of Idea

Any object can have many different names, each with a distinct sense

Source

Gottlob Frege (Letters to Jourdain [1910], p.44)

Book Ref

'Meaning and Reference', ed/tr. Moore,A.W. [OUP 1993], p.44


A Reaction

This seems right. No name is an entirely neutral designator. Imagine asking a death-camp survivor their name, and they give you their prison number. Sense clearly intrudes into names. But picking out the object is what really matters.


The 4 ideas from 'Letters to Jourdain'

In 'Etna is higher than Vesuvius' the whole of Etna, including all the lava, can't be the reference [Frege]
We understand new propositions by constructing their sense from the words [Frege]
Senses can't be subjective, because propositions would be private, and disagreement impossible [Frege]
Any object can have many different names, each with a distinct sense [Frege]