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Single Idea 9821

[filed under theme 2. Reason / D. Definition / 2. Aims of Definition ]

Full Idea

Frege expressly denies that a correct definition need capture the sense of the expression it defines: it need only get the reference right.

Gist of Idea

A definition need not capture the sense of an expression - just get the reference right

Source

report of Gottlob Frege (Review of Husserl's 'Phil of Arithmetic' [1894]) by Michael Dummett - Frege philosophy of mathematics Ch.3

Book Ref

Dummett,Michael: 'Frege: philosophy of mathematics' [Duckworth 1991], p.32

A Reaction

This might hit up against the renate/cordate problem, of two co-extensive concepts, where the definition gets the extension right, but the intension wrong.

The 15 ideas from 'Review of Husserl's 'Phil of Arithmetic''

9821 A definition need not capture the sense of an expression - just get the reference right [Frege, by Dummett]
17446 Counting rests on one-one correspondence, of numerals to objects [Frege]
9577 The naïve view of number is that it is like a heap of things, or maybe a property of a heap [Frege]
9578 If objects are just presentation, we get increasing abstraction by ignoring their properties [Frege]
9580 Our concepts recognise existing relations, they don't change them [Frege]
9579 Disregarding properties of two cats still leaves different objects, but what is now the difference? [Frege]
9581 Many people have the same thought, which is the component, not the private presentation [Frege]
9582 Husserl rests sameness of number on one-one correlation, forgetting the correlation with numbers themselves [Frege]
9583 Psychological logicians are concerned with sense of words, but mathematicians study the reference [Frege]
9584 Identity baffles psychologists, since A and B must be presented differently to identify them [Frege]
9585 Since every definition is an equation, one cannot define equality itself [Frege]
9586 In a number-statement, something is predicated of a concept [Frege]
9587 How do you find the right level of inattention; you eliminate too many or too few characteristics [Frege]
9588 Number-abstraction somehow makes things identical without changing them! [Frege]
9589 Numbers are not real like the sea, but (crucially) they are still objective [Frege]