Metaphysicians of Meaning: Frege and Russell on Sense and Denotation

ISBN-13: 9780415242264 / Angielski / Miękka / 2000 / 240 str.

Gideon Makin

Opis

Russell's On Denoting and Frege's On Sense and Reference are now widely held to be two of the founding papers of 20th-century philosophy and form the heart of the famous linguistic turn. They have generated a wealth of secondary literature and remain at the forefront of contemporary discussion in philosophy of language, thought and logic. This book challenges the accepted understanding of these two seminal papers. It forces us to reconsider contemporary approaches to the semantics of proper names and definite descriptions through a historically sensitive interpretation of Russell's and Frege's work on meaning. Gideon Makin compares the work Russell did shortly before his famous essay On Denoting with the essay itself and argues that this comparison shows that the traditional view of the problem Russell was trying to solve is untenable. Makin then examines Frege's classic essay and argues that some of the less well-known views that Frege held have radical implications for our understanding of this essay.

Spis treści

Part I: Russell Chapter 1: Russell's First Theory of Denoting I. The Elements II. The Mathematical context III. Denoting, definition and identity IV. Three essential elements V. Post PoM developments Chapter 2: The Collapse of the First Theory and the Discovery of the Theory of Descriptions I. Introduction: the obscure passage in 'On Denoting' II. The argument: the 'substantial' round (i) C2 is a different entity from C1 (ii) C1 cannot be a constituent of C2 (iii) 'But this cannot be an explanation' I. (iv) The third charge III. The argument: the 'symbolic' round (i) The twin phenomena (ii) Use and mention IV. 'But this cannot be an explanation II (i) The burden of proof (ii) A survey of theoretical possibilities (iii) C2 as a description of C1 (iv) Denoting and other logical relations V. The Transition VI. The discovery of the Theory of Descriptions Chapter 3: The Place of 'On Denoting' in Russell's Development I. 'On Denoting' and Russell's ontological development: some preliminaries I. Russell's case against Meinong III. Russell's ontology in PoM reconsidered IV. Methodological developments: 'Every word must have some meaning' V. Contextual definition VI. The Notion of an incomplete symbol VII. The role of language VIII. Some positive remarks Part II: Frege Chapter 4: From Begriffsschrift to sense and Reference I. Introduction II. The problem III. Frege's solution in Bs IV. 'Sinn und Bedeutung': the collapse of the first theory V. 'Sinn und Bedeutung': The new solution Chapter 5: Further Considerations Regarding Sense and Reference I. The priority of the distinction for proper names II. Sense and indirect speech III. Sense as a route and empty senses IV. Sense determines reference I - The question of relativization V. Sense determines reference II - The conceptual model VI. The application of Russell's argument in OD to Frege's distinction Part III: Russell and Frege Chapter 6: Russell and Frege Compared I. Introduction: The

O autorze

Gideon Makin is Lecturer of Philosophy at the Open University, Tel Aviv, and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford.