Single Idea 8448

[catalogued under 5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / b. Names as descriptive]

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 Reference

'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.