DOCSLIB.ORG

"The Analytic Breakdown of Language, Which Was First Rigorously Performed

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
"The analytic breakdown of language, which was first rigorously performed hy Frege, is the unique and essential philosophical move of the analytic tradition." FREGE AND WITTGENSTEIN The Limits of the Analytic Style CHRISTOPHER SHERIDAN THE ANALYTIC TRADITION IN PHILOSOPHY STEMS FROM THE WORK OF GERMAN MATHEMATICIAN AND LOGICIAN GOTTLOB FREGE. BERTRAND RUSSELL BROUGHT FREGE'S PROGRAM TO RENDER LANGUAGE - PARTICULARLY SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE - IN FORMAL LOGICAL TERMS TO THE FOREFRONTOF PHI LO SOPHY IN THE EARLY TWEN- TIETH CENTURY. THE QUEST TO CLARIFY LANGUAGE AND PARSE OUT GENUINE PHILO- SOPHICAL PROBLEMS REMAINS A CORNERSTONE OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY, BUT IN- VESTIGATIVE PROGRAMS INVOLVING THE BROAD APPLICATION OF FORMAL SYMBOLIC LOGIC TO LANGUAGE HAVE LARGELY BEEN ABANDONED DUE TO THE INFLUENCE OF LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN'S LATER WORK. THIS ARTICLE IDENTIFIES THE KEY PHILO- SOPHICAL MOVES THAT MUST BE PERFORMED SUCCESSFULLY IN ORDER FOR FREGE'S "CONCEPTUAL NOTATION" AND OTHER SIMILAR SYSTEMS TO ADEQUATELY CAPTURE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS. THESE MOVES ULTIMATELY FAIL AS A RESULT OF THE NA- TURE OF LINGUISTIC MEANING. THE SHIFT AWAY FROM FORMAL LOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE CURRENT ANALYTIC STYLE BECOMES CLEARER WHEN THIS FAILURE IS EXAMINED CRITICALLY. I Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) aimed to formalize the language "The analytic breakdown of science such that the notation by which science ex- pressed itself corresponded to the rigorous objectivity of ultimately fails to achieve a the scientific worldview. Out of mathematics—specifically the concepts of function and equality—Frege derived a log- total reformulation.... ical system in which ordinary language is represented by "truth functions," and meaning is represented by equality. Language ultimately resists This novel representation of language as a formal syntacti- cal system purports to account for semantics as well. complete formalization." Frege's formal, objective systematization of language marks the beginning of the analytic tradition. As pointed out by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) in The The "conceptual notation"1 is made possible by two parallel Crisis of European Science, the philosophical move that I deconstructions of ordinary language: (1) the reduction of have called the formal correlation has been and continues ordinary grammatical structure—that is, the sentence— to be critical to the success of the scientific worldview. into subject and predicate, and (2) the breakdown of ordi- Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and others have used the for- nary semantics into sense (Sinn), reference (Bedeutung), mal correlation to describe shapes and physical bodies and idea. Subsequently, Frege correlated mathematical mathematically. Leibniz even proposed the idea of a uni- functionality with linguistic predication and mathematical versal notation, capable of accommodating everything equality with linguistic "truth value"—"the circumstance v within one formal system. Therefore, the formal correla- that it [the sentence] is true or false."11 The philosophical tion performed by Frege—although an interesting inter- path by which Frege arrives at his "formal language"1" con- pretation—does not constitute a new kind of philosophical sists generally in these two steps. move. I quite admire the ingenuity of Frege's application of the formal correlation, but I will not further discuss his I will refer to the reduction of ordinary syntax to predication "conceptual notation" and the correlation of argument and performed in parallel with the parsing of ordinary seman- function with subject and predicate, resulting in the "truth tics as the analytic breakdown. I will refer to the correlation function" formulation of language. of linguistic component to logico-mathematical symbols as the formal correlation. The analytic style—as it was origi- The analytic breakdown of language, which was first rigor- nally conceived—fundamentally consisted of these two ously performed by Frege, is the unique and essential philo- philosophical moves. sophical move of the analytic tradition. This move aims to transform language—already a complex syntactical and se- Briefly, the formal correlation consists in ascribing formal mantic system—in such a way as to allow the application of notation and syntax (a formal system) to an informal sys- the formal correlation. tem. This usually involves the mathematization of non- mathematical content, but the formal system applied need Applying Husserl's method of remembering forgotten not be strictly mathematical. Frege's "conceptual notation" philosophical steps, I will trace the moves that Frege made is an example of a formal system that is not strictly mathe- in performing his analytic breakdown. This Husserlian matical, though it conserves the priority of logical relations analysis reveals that the analytic breakdown ultimately fails between symbols.lv to achieve a total reformulation—that language fundamen- ELEM ENTS SPRING 10 tally resists complete formalization.^ The specific nature Consider a simple sentence: "The boy is German." This is of this failure limits the analytic tradition such that, at most, a grammatical English sentence, for the article ("the"), the it prescribes a philosophical style, which, like Socratic dis- noun ("boy"), the adjective ("German"), and the verb ("is") course, is a useful tool, but far from a strict philosophical perform functions within their linguistic jurisdiction as arti- method. In short, the general utility of the analytic break- cles, nouns, adjectives, and verbs. From the grammatical down for addressing philosophical problems is severely function of each word in the sentence—the syntax—I can constrained by its failure to clarify language to the point tell that the verb involved is being, the boy is the subject where it is sufficiently objective to be formalized. since he "does the being," so to speak, and German is the subjective complement—that which the boy is. II Language as we know it has both syntax and semantics. In addition to being grammatical, the sentence makes Specifically, the words and phrases we use have both gram- sense because it is reasonable to say, "The boy is German." matical meaning according to their function in correctly Why is this the case? The short answer is that the sentence formed sentences (syntax) and intrinsic meaning (seman- has properly coordinated semantic content. We know what tics). The reduction of grammar to subjection and predica- a boy is, having seen them running around our neighbor- tion concerns the syntax of language, while the parsing into hoods (some of us once were boys ourselves!). In the same Sense (Sinn), Reference (Bedeutung), and more broadly way, we know what it means to be of German origin, and we Idea concerns semantics. know what the act or state of "being" is. Consequently, we know that a boy is subject to any number of states, that the German nationality is one such state, and that "to be" is the COTTLOB FRECE PROPOSED A SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE FOR EXPRESSING FORMAL LOGIC, SHOWN I N TH E M I DDLE COLU M N. Basic concept Frege's notation Modern notations (A) = 1 Judging h-A, IK A p p(A) = i Negation —i- A - A ; -A Conditional A B-+A (implication) 1 B = A ' B Universal quantification Vy: «(y) —&— *00 Existential quantification r — ~\i'—^ * (u) 3y: <&(y) Content identity (equal sign) A = B A = B FRECE AND WITTGENSTEIN proper verb for expressing a state or characteristic. the sentence, "The boy throws the ball." In order to express Therefore the sentence is reasonable. "The boy throws the ball," in predication syntax, the sen- tence must be reformulated to, "The boy is throwing the We can see from this simple example that although syntax ball." The action of the transitive verb "to throw" is con- and semantics are related, they are two different aspects of verted into a judgment about the boy mediated by "is." In language. This distinction necessitates at least two philo- an important sense, action is converted into a state or char- sophical moves—one addressing syntax and another ad- acteristic, and the subject is converted from an agent per- dressing semantics—in order to prepare ordinary language forming an action into an object undergoing judgment. for formalization. Frege recognized not only the necessity of this "pre-formalization," but specifically that this step The sentence above is, of course, a simple example demon- must result in both a rigorous simplification in grammati- strating the principle of converting grammatical syntax cal syntax and an elimination of intuition from semantics into predication syntax, but Frege dedicates a large portion "to keep the chain of reasoning free of gaps."vn Only such of the chapter entitled "Sense and Meaning" to articulating a step would enable the assimilation of ordinary language the method by which even complex sentences—sentences into conceptual notation. Thus Frege conceived the ana- in which whole phrases contribute to in grammatical syn- lytic breakdown as a syntactical reduction accompanied by a tax—may also be converted into predication syntax. Frege semantic deconstruction. proposed that the method sketched above can restate a sig- nificant portion, if not all, grammatically syntactical state- Ill ments in predication syntax. The result is that even the In order to bring linguistic syntax down to size, Frege re- most complex sentences can be expressed as a subject and duces the complex grammatical syntax of language to pred- a judgment about that subject, achieving the requisite sim- ication. More specifically, he makes the case that all con- plification of grammatical syntax. crete statements can be reformulated into a subject-predicate structure, wherein the predicate articu- IV lates a "judgment" about the subject mediated by the verb While the syntactical reduction of Frege's analytic break- "to be."vm This judgment can either be true or false de- down is essential, the semantic deconstruction is at once pending on the subject, and this judgment becomes the pri- more difficult and more controversial. As we will see, the mary information communicated by the syntactical struc- success—or failure as I argue—of the analytic breakdown ture.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Individualism, Structuralism, and Climate Change
    1 2 3 Individualism, Structuralism, and Climate Change 4 5 Michael Brownstein 6 Alex Madva 7 Daniel Kelly 8 9 10 Abstract 11 12 Scholars and activists working on climate change often distinguish between “individual” and 13 “structural” approaches to decarbonization. The former concern behaviors and consumption 14 choices individual citizens can make to reduce their “personal carbon footprint” (e.g., eating less 15 meat). The latter concern institutions that shape collective action, focusing instead on state and 16 national laws, industrial policies, and international treaties. While the distinction between 17 individualism and structuralism—the latter of which we take to include “institutional”, “systemic”, 18 and “collectivist” approaches—is intuitive and ubiquitous, the two approaches are often portrayed 19 as oppositional, as if one or the other is the superior route to decarbonization. We argue instead for 20 a more symbiotic conception of structural and individual reform. 21 22 23 1. Introduction 24 Scholars and activists working on climate change often distinguish between “individual” and 25 “structural” approaches to decarbonization. The former concern behaviors and consumption 26 choices individual citizens can make to reduce their “personal carbon footprint” (e.g., eating less 27 meat). The latter concern institutions that shape collective action, focusing instead on state and 28 national laws, industrial policies, and international treaties. While the distinction between 29 individualism and structuralism—the latter of which we take to include “institutional”, “systemic”, 30 and “collectivist” approaches—is intuitive and ubiquitous, the two approaches are often portrayed 31 as oppositional, as if one or the other is the superior route to decarbonization.
    [Show full text]
  • Reference and Sense
    REFERENCE AND SENSE y two distinct ways of talking about the meaning of words y tlkitalking of SENSE=deali ng with relationshippggs inside language y talking of REFERENCE=dealing with reltilations hips bbtetween l. and the world y by means of reference a speaker indicates which things (including persons) are being talked about ege.g. My son is in the beech tree. II identifies persons identifies things y REFERENCE-relationship between the Enggplish expression ‘this p pgage’ and the thing you can hold between your finger and thumb (part of the world) y your left ear is the REFERENT of the phrase ‘your left ear’ while REFERENCE is the relationship between parts of a l. and things outside the l. y The same expression can be used to refer to different things- there are as many potential referents for the phrase ‘your left ear’ as there are pppeople in the world with left ears Many expressions can have VARIABLE REFERENCE y There are cases of expressions which in normal everyday conversation never refer to different things, i.e. which in most everyday situations that one can envisage have CONSTANT REFERENCE. y However, there is very little constancy of reference in l. Almost all of the fixing of reference comes from the context in which expressions are used. y Two different expressions can have the same referent class ica l example: ‘the MiMorning St’Star’ and ‘the Evening Star’ to refer to the planet Venus y SENSE of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relati onshi ps wit h other expressions in the l.
    [Show full text]
  • Limits on Bilingualism Revisited: Stress 'Deafness' in Simultaneous French
    Cognition 114 (2010) 266–275 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Cognition journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/COGNIT Limits on bilingualism revisited: Stress ‘deafness’ in simultaneous French–Spanish bilinguals Emmanuel Dupoux a,*, Sharon Peperkamp a,b, Núria Sebastián-Gallés c a Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 29 Rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, France b Département des Sciences du Langage, Université de Paris VIII, Saint-Denis, France c Brain and Cognition Unit, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain article info abstract Article history: We probed simultaneous French–Spanish bilinguals for the perception of Spanish lexical Received 29 September 2008 stress using three tasks, two short-term memory encoding tasks and a speeded lexical deci- Revised 30 September 2009 sion. In all three tasks, the performance of the group of simultaneous bilinguals was inter- Accepted 1 October 2009 mediate between that of native speakers of Spanish on the one hand and French late learners of Spanish on the other hand. Using a composite stress ‘deafness’ index measure computed over the results of the three tasks, we found that the performance of the simul- Keywords: taneous bilinguals is best fitted by a bimodal distribution that corresponds to a mixture of Speech perception the performance distributions of the two control groups. Correlation analyses showed that Simultaneous bilingualism Phonology the variables explaining language dominance are linked to early language exposure. These Stress findings are discussed in light of theories of language processing in bilinguals. Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V.
    [Show full text]
  • Two-Dimensionalism: Semantics and Metasemantics
    Two-Dimensionalism: Semantics and Metasemantics YEUNG, \y,ang -C-hun ...:' . '",~ ... ~ .. A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy In Philosophy The Chinese University of Hong Kong January 2010 Abstract of thesis entitled: Two-Dimensionalism: Semantics and Metasemantics Submitted by YEUNG, Wang Chun for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in July 2009 This ,thesis investigates problems surrounding the lively debate about how Kripke's examples of necessary a posteriori truths and contingent a priori truths should be explained. Two-dimensionalism is a recent development that offers a non-reductive analysis of such truths. The semantic interpretation of two-dimensionalism, proposed by Jackson and Chalmers, has certain 'descriptive' elements, which can be articulated in terms of the following three claims: (a) names and natural kind terms are reference-fixed by some associated properties, (b) these properties are known a priori by every competent speaker, and (c) these properties reflect the cognitive significance of sentences containing such terms. In this thesis, I argue against two arguments directed at such 'descriptive' elements, namely, The Argument from Ignorance and Error ('AlE'), and The Argument from Variability ('AV'). I thereby suggest that reference-fixing properties belong to the semantics of names and natural kind terms, and not to their metasemantics. Chapter 1 is a survey of some central notions related to the debate between descriptivism and direct reference theory, e.g. sense, reference, and rigidity. Chapter 2 outlines the two-dimensional approach and introduces the va~ieties of interpretations 11 of the two-dimensional framework.
    [Show full text]
  • Language Development Language Development
    Language Development rom their very first cries, human beings communicate with the world around them. Infants communicate through sounds (crying and cooing) and through body lan- guage (pointing and other gestures). However, sometime between 8 and 18 months Fof age, a major developmental milestone occurs when infants begin to use words to speak. Words are symbolic representations; that is, when a child says “table,” we understand that the word represents the object. Language can be defined as a system of symbols that is used to communicate. Although language is used to communicate with others, we may also talk to ourselves and use words in our thinking. The words we use can influence the way we think about and understand our experiences. After defining some basic aspects of language that we use throughout the chapter, we describe some of the theories that are used to explain the amazing process by which we Language9 A system of understand and produce language. We then look at the brain’s role in processing and pro- symbols that is used to ducing language. After a description of the stages of language development—from a baby’s communicate with others or first cries through the slang used by teenagers—we look at the topic of bilingualism. We in our thinking. examine how learning to speak more than one language affects a child’s language develop- ment and how our educational system is trying to accommodate the increasing number of bilingual children in the classroom. Finally, we end the chapter with information about disorders that can interfere with children’s language development.
    [Show full text]
  • Gottlob Frege: on Sense and Reference Professor Jeeloo Liu [Introduction]
    Phil/Ling 375: Meaning and Mind [Handout #13] Gottlob Frege: On Sense and Reference Professor JeeLoo Liu [Introduction] I. Language and the World ___ How does language depict reality? Does reality have the same structure as the structure of language? For instance, the basic linguistic structure is a subject and a predicate, and the basic structure of the world is a particular and a universal (e.g. “Socrates is wise”). The subject usually is something of the world and we describe some property it has or does not have. A is F is true is A is really F, is false when A is not F. II. Different Elements of Language Singular terms: Terms that designate particular things Proper names Indexicals: now, today, here, I… Demonstratives: that, this… Pronouns (singular): he, she,… Definite descriptions (the so-and-so): Indefinite (singular) descriptions (a so-and-so) General terms: Terms that designate a kind of things or a certain property Mass nouns ___ natural kind terms (‘water,’ ‘tiger,’ ‘lemon’) ___ non-natural kind terms (‘bachelor’, ‘contract,’ ‘chair’) Adjectives (predicates): colors, shapes, etc. III. Traditional Theories of Meaning Prior to Frege [A] The Ideational Theory ___ The meaning of a linguistic expression is the speaker’s idea that is associated with the expression. [B] Mill’s Theory [the Object Theory] ___ The meaning of a singular term is the thing designated by that term; ___ the meaning of a name is just what the name stands for; the name does not have any other meaning e.g. ‘Socrates’ means Socrates e.g. ‘Dartmouth’ e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Epistemic Two-Dimensionalism and the Epistemic Argument
    Epistemic two-dimensionalism and the epistemic argument Jeff Speaks November 12, 2008 Abstract. One of Kripke's fundamental objections to descriptivism was that the theory misclassifies certain a posteriori propositions expressed by sentences involving names as a priori. Though nowadays very few philosophers would endorse a descriptivism of the sort that Kripke criticized, many find two- dimensional semantics attractive as a kind of successor theory. Because two- dimensionalism needn't be a form of descriptivism, it is not open to the epis- temic argument as formulated by Kripke; but the most promising versions of two-dimensionalism are open to a close relative of that argument. One of Kripke's most powerful objections to the descriptivist theory of names he considered in Naming & Necessity was that the theory misclassifies the propositions expressed by certain sentences as a priori. For example, Kripke pointed out that the proposition expressed by a sentence of the form [1] If n exists, then n is F . will be, in the standard case, a posteriori. But according to the simplest version of descriptivism, the propositions expressed by sentences of the form of [1] just are the propositions expressed by the corresponding instances of [2] If the F exists, then the F is F . which seem clearly to be a priori truths. But even if many were convinced that Kripke's arguments discredited the descrip- tivist theories he considered, many were not satisfied by the Millian alternative to descriptivism. Many such philosophers take it to be a constraint on a theory of names that it capture the perceived explanatory advantages of descriptivism | including its account of the problems of empty names and of apparent substitution failures of coreferential names in attitude ascriptions | while avoiding Kripke's arguments against classical descriptivism.
    [Show full text]
  • Constructing Kallipolis: the Political Argument of Plato's Socratic Dialogues
    Constructing Kallipolis: The Political Argument of Plato's Socratic Dialogues The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Muller, Joe Pahl Williams. 2016. Constructing Kallipolis: The Political Argument of Plato's Socratic Dialogues. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493293 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Constructing Kallipolis: The Political Argument of Plato’s Socratic Dialogues A dissertation presented by Joe Pahl Williams Muller to The Department of Government in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Political Science Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April 2016 © 2016 Joe Pahl Williams Muller All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisors: Joe Pahl Williams Muller Professor Eric Nelson Professor Rusty Jones Constructing Kallipolis: The Political Argument of Plato’s Socratic Dialogues Abstract This dissertation examines the political argument of Plato’s Socratic dialogues. Common interpretations of these texts suggest, variously: (1) that Socrates does not offer much in the way of a political theory; (2) that Socrates does reflect on politics but ultimately rejects political in- stitutions as irrelevant to his ethical concerns; (3) that Socrates arrives at a political theory that either accepts or even celebrates free and demo- cratic political arrangements.
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of Initial Exposure on Lexical
    Journal of Memory and Language Journal of Memory and Language 52 (2005) 240–255 www.elsevier.com/locate/jml The influence of initial exposure on lexical representation: Comparing early and simultaneous bilinguals Nu´ria Sebastia´n-Galle´s*, Sagrario Echeverrı´a, Laura Bosch Cognitive Neuroscience Group, Parc Cientı´fic UB-Hospital Sant Joan de De´u, Edifici Docent, c/ Sta. Rosa, 39-57 4a planta, 08950 Esplugues, Barcelona, Spain Received 8 March 2004; revision received 3 November 2004 Abstract The representation of L2 words and non-words was analysed in a series of three experiments. Catalan-Spanish bilinguals, differing in terms of their L1 and the age of exposure to their L2 (since birth—simultaneous bilinguals— or starting in early childhood—early sequential bilinguals), were asked to perform a lexical decision task on Catalan words and non-words. The non-words were based on real words, but with one vowel changed: critically, this vowel change could involve a Catalan contrast that Spanish natives find difficult to perceive. The results confirmed previous data indicating that in spite of early, intensive exposure, Spanish-Catalan bilinguals fail to perceive certain Catalan contrasts, and that this failure has consequences at the lexical level. Further, the results from simultaneous bilinguals show: (a) that even in the case of bilinguals who are exposed to both languages from birth, a dominant language prevails; and (b) that simultaneous bilinguals do not attain the same level of proficiency as early bilinguals in their first language. Ó 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Speech perception; Bilingualism; Spanish; Catalan; Vowel perception; Early exposure; Sensitive period; Lexicon How early must an individual learn a second lan- longer assume that there is a more or less sudden end guage to attain native performance? Popular wisdom to an individualÕs ability to master a second language, has it that puberty is the upper limit for ‘‘perfect’’ sec- but hold that the loss of the acquisition capacity is pro- ond language acquisition.
    [Show full text]
  • Frege's Theory of Sense
    Frege’s theory of sense Jeff Speaks August 25, 2011 1. Three arguments that there must be more to meaning than reference ............................1 1.1. Frege’s puzzle about identity sentences 1.2. Understanding and knowledge of reference 1.3. Opaque contexts 2. The theoretical roles of senses .........................................................................................4 2.1. Frege’s criterion for distinctness of sense 2.2. Sense determines reference, but not the reverse 2.3. Indirect reference 2.4. Sense, force, and the theory of speech acts 3. What are senses? .............................................................................................................6 We have now seen how a theory of reference — a theory that assigns to each expression of the language a reference, which is what it contributes to determining the truth or falsity of sentences in which it occurs — might look for a fragment of English. (The fragment of English includes proper names, n-place predicates, and quantifiers.) We now turn to Frege’s reasons for thinking that a theory of reference must be supplemented with a theory of sense. 1. THREE ARGUMENTS THAT THERE MUST BE MORE TO MEANING THAN REFERENCE 1.1. Frege’s puzzle about identity sentences As Frege says at the outset of “On sense and reference,” identity “gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer.” The puzzle raised by identity sentences is that, if, even though “the morning star” and “the evening star” have the same reference — the planet Venus — the sentences [1] The morning star is the morning star. [2] The morning star is the evening star. seem quite different. They seem, as Frege says, to differ in “cognitive value.” [1] is trivial and a priori; whereas [2] seems a posteriori, and could express a valuable extension of knowledge — it, unlike [1], seems to express an astronomical discovery which took substantial empirical work to make.
    [Show full text]
  • Names, Descriptions, and Pragmatics
    H I LL IN I S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007. 3-2~/= b T i T E C HR NE Technical Report No. 7 I cP Names, Descriptions, and Pragmatics I A 0 Andrew Ortony LR T February 1976 S LABORATORY for COGNITIVE STUDIES THE LWIRARY OF THE in OCT 7 1981 EDUCATION UNIVLK,'I l ur ILLINUIS AT U TA o•A 'PAIGN "c~c~nell,uWi0 lo/4oY4 inCa w/&t(anal%-IAan6 amyan Technical Report No. 7 Names, Descriptions, and Pragmatics I Andrew Ortony February 1976 University of Illinois Laboratory for Cognitive Studies in Education 236 Education Building Urbana, Illinois 61801 The research described herein was supported in part by the National Institute of Education under Grant No. HEW NIE-G-74-0007. A reasonable expectation of a fully-fledged theory of reference in natural language would be that it provide at least a basis for determining, in any particular occurrence of a referring expression, a name or descrip- tion, what function that referring expression is being used to perform. No theory is able to determine whether (1) is true or false, even given the truth of (2) and (3). (1) Oedipus wanted to marry his mother. (2) Oedipus wanted to marry Jocasta. (3) Jocasta was the mother of Oedipus. Now the reason that no theory can determine whether (1) is entailed by the conjunction of (2) and (3) is that the description "his mother" in (1) occurs in a referentially opaque context.
    [Show full text]
  • Frege and the Logic of Sense and Reference
    FREGE AND THE LOGIC OF SENSE AND REFERENCE Kevin C. Klement Routledge New York & London Published in 2002 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2002 by Kevin C. Klement All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any infomration storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klement, Kevin C., 1974– Frege and the logic of sense and reference / by Kevin Klement. p. cm — (Studies in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-415-93790-6 1. Frege, Gottlob, 1848–1925. 2. Sense (Philosophy) 3. Reference (Philosophy) I. Title II. Studies in philosophy (New York, N. Y.) B3245.F24 K54 2001 12'.68'092—dc21 2001048169 Contents Page Preface ix Abbreviations xiii 1. The Need for a Logical Calculus for the Theory of Sinn and Bedeutung 3 Introduction 3 Frege’s Project: Logicism and the Notion of Begriffsschrift 4 The Theory of Sinn and Bedeutung 8 The Limitations of the Begriffsschrift 14 Filling the Gap 21 2. The Logic of the Grundgesetze 25 Logical Language and the Content of Logic 25 Functionality and Predication 28 Quantifiers and Gothic Letters 32 Roman Letters: An Alternative Notation for Generality 38 Value-Ranges and Extensions of Concepts 42 The Syntactic Rules of the Begriffsschrift 44 The Axiomatization of Frege’s System 49 Responses to the Paradox 56 v vi Contents 3.
    [Show full text]