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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.
8447 | In 'Etna is higher than Vesuvius' the whole of Etna, including all the lava, can't be the reference [Frege] |
8446 | We understand new propositions by constructing their sense from the words [Frege] |
8449 | Senses can't be subjective, because propositions would be private, and disagreement impossible [Frege] |
8448 | Any object can have many different names, each with a distinct sense [Frege] |