Single Idea 18938

[catalogued under 5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / e. Empty names]

Full Idea

In Frege's account sentences such as 'Pegasus does not exist' will be neither true nor false, since the truth-value of a sentence is its referent, and the referent of a complex expression is determined by the referent of its parts.

Gist of Idea

Frege's compositional account of truth-vaues makes 'Pegasus doesn't exist' neither true nor false

Source

Sarah Sawyer (Empty Names [2012], 2)

Book Reference

'Routledge Companion to Phil of Language', ed/tr. Russell/Graff Faria [Routledge 2015], p.154


A Reaction

We can keep the idea of 'sense', which is very useful for dealing with empty names, but tweak his account of truth-values to evade this problem. I'm thinking that meaning is compositional, but truth-value isn't.

Related Idea

Idea 18937 If sentences have a 'sense', empty name sentences can be understood that way [Frege, by Sawyer]