more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 9841
[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis
]
Full Idea
Frege was the first philosopher to ask a non-linguistic question, and return a linguistic answer.
Gist of Idea
Frege was the first to give linguistic answers to non-linguistic questions
Source
report of Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Michael Dummett - Frege philosophy of mathematics Ch.10
Book Ref
Dummett,Michael: 'Frege: philosophy of mathematics' [Duckworth 1991], p.112
A Reaction
This is both heroic and infuriating. It is like erecting a road block in front of a beautiful valley. You say 'Is there a God?' and I reply 'Let us consider the semantics of that sentence'.
The
38 ideas
with the same theme
[analysis focusing on formal or ordinary language]:
14027
|
If we are to use words in enquiry, we need their main, unambiguous and uncontested meanings
[Epicurus]
|
13313
|
Even philosophers have got bogged down in analysing tiny bits of language
[Seneca]
|
22764
|
Ordinary speech is not exact about what is true; we say we are digging a well before the well exists
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
24033
|
Most scholastic disputes concern words, where agreeing on meanings would settle them
[Descartes]
|
17200
|
We must be careful to keep words distinct from ideas and images
[Spinoza]
|
23657
|
The existence of tensed verbs shows that not all truths are necessary truths
[Reid]
|
20947
|
Thoughts are learnt through words, so language shows the limits and shape of our knowledge
[Herder]
|
6918
|
Philosophy should not focus on names, but on the determined nature of things
[Feuerbach]
|
16012
|
Philosophy can't be unbiased if it ignores language, as that is no more independent than individuals are
[Kierkegaard]
|
20121
|
Grammar only reveals popular metaphysics
[Nietzsche]
|
9841
|
Frege was the first to give linguistic answers to non-linguistic questions
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
9840
|
Frege initiated linguistic philosophy, studying number through the sense of sentences
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
14456
|
'Socrates is human' expresses predication, and 'Socrates is a man' expresses identity
[Russell]
|
21552
|
Common speech is vague; its vocabulary and syntax must be modified, for precision
[Russell]
|
7529
|
All philosophy should begin with an analysis of propositions
[Russell]
|
14109
|
The study of grammar is underestimated in philosophy
[Russell]
|
18732
|
We don't need a theory of truth, because we use the word perfectly well
[Wittgenstein]
|
18274
|
Analysis complicates a statement, but only as far as the complexity of its meaning
[Wittgenstein]
|
22490
|
Bring words back from metaphysics to everyday use
[Wittgenstein]
|
6429
|
All complex statements can be resolved into constituents and descriptions
[Wittgenstein]
|
23492
|
Our language is an aspect of biology, and so its inner logic is opaque
[Wittgenstein]
|
23510
|
Most philosophical questions arise from failing to understand the logic of language
[Wittgenstein]
|
2938
|
The limits of my language means the limits of my world
[Wittgenstein]
|
17651
|
Without words or other symbols, we have no world
[Goodman]
|
21960
|
Ordinary language is the beginning of philosophy, but there is much more to it
[Austin,JL]
|
7921
|
Close examination of actual word usage is the only sure way in philosophy
[Strawson,P]
|
5486
|
Essentialism says metaphysics can't be done by analysing unreliable language
[Ellis]
|
8349
|
The best way to do ontology is to make sense of our normal talk
[Davidson]
|
16512
|
Semantic facts are preferable to transcendental philosophical fiction
[Wiggins]
|
13974
|
If philosophy is analysis of meaning, available to all competent speakers, what's left for philosophers?
[Soames]
|
3312
|
There are the 'is' of predication (a function), the 'is' of identity (equals), and the 'is' of existence (quantifier)
[Benardete,JA]
|
7001
|
If you begin philosophy with language, you find yourself trapped in it
[Heil]
|
6887
|
Linguistic philosophy approaches problems by attending to actual linguistic usage
[Mautner]
|
10308
|
Questions about objects are questions about certain non-vacuous singular terms
[Hale]
|
14092
|
Philosophers are often too fussy about words, dismissing perfectly useful ordinary terms
[Rosen]
|
7923
|
'Did it for the sake of x' doesn't involve a sake, so how can ontological commitments be inferred?
[Macdonald,C]
|
16325
|
Analysis rests on natural language, but its ideal is a framework which revises language
[Halbach]
|
4465
|
Note that "is" can assert existence, or predication, or identity, or classification
[PG]
|