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Ideas for 'poems', 'General Draft' and 'Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations)'

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6 ideas

18. Thought / D. Concepts / 1. Concepts / a. Nature of concepts
Early Frege takes the extensions of concepts for granted [Frege, by Dummett]
     Full Idea: In the 'Grundlagen' Frege takes the notion of the extension of a concept for granted as unproblematic.
     From: report of Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Michael Dummett - Frege philosophy of mathematics Ch.16
     A reaction: This comfortable notion was undermined by Russell's discovery of a concept which couldn't have an extension. Maybe we could defeat the Russell problem (and return to Frege's common sense) by denying that sets are objects.
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 3. Ontology of Concepts / c. Fregean concepts
Concepts are, precisely, the references of predicates [Frege, by Wright,C]
     Full Idea: For Frege concepts are, precisely, the Bedeutungen of predicates.
     From: report of Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Crispin Wright - Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects 1.iv
     A reaction: On p.17 Wright challenges Frege's right to make that assumption.
A concept is a non-psychological one-place function asserting something of an object [Frege, by Weiner]
     Full Idea: A concept is a one-place function - something that can be asserted of an object - as found in 'Earth is a planet' and 'Venus is a planet'. This notion of concept does not belong to psychology at all.
     From: report of Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Joan Weiner - Frege Ch.4
     A reaction: This doesn't seem to leave room for the concept of the object or substance of which the something is asserted. In 'x is a planet' we need a concept of what x is. But then Frege will reduce the reference to a set of descriptions (i.e. functions).
Fregean concepts have precise boundaries and universal applicability [Frege, by Koslicki]
     Full Idea: Both precise boundaries and universal applicability are built into the very notion of a Fregean concept from the outset, while isolation and non-arbitrary division are additional criteria imposed on concepts.
     From: report of Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Kathrin Koslicki - Isolation and Non-arbitrary Division 2.1
     A reaction: The latter two criteria are for concepts which create counting units.
Psychological accounts of concepts are subjective, and ultimately destroy truth [Frege]
     Full Idea: Defining concepts psychologically, in terms of the nature of the human mind, makes everything subjective, and if we follow it through to the end, does away with truth.
     From: Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884], Intro)
     A reaction: This is the reason for Frege's passionate opposition to psychological approaches to thought. The problem, though, is to give an account in which the fixity of truth connects to the fluctuations of mental life. How does it do that??
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 5. Concepts and Language / b. Concepts are linguistic
A concept is a possible predicate of a singular judgement [Frege]
     Full Idea: A concept is for me that which can be predicate of a singular judgement-content.
     From: Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884], §66 n)
     A reaction: This seems intuitively odd, given that a predicate could (in principle) be of almost infinite complexity, whereas I would be reluctant to call anything a 'concept' if it couldn't be grasped by a single action of a normal conscious mind.