Single Idea 9817

[catalogued under 19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 5. Fregean Semantics]

Full Idea

Earlier Frege was interested solely in the content of our statements, not in our grasp of that content. His notion of 'sense' from 1891 onwards, has to do with understanding; the sense of an expression is something we grasp.

Gist of Idea

Earlier Frege focuses on content itself; later he became interested in understanding content

Source

report of Gottlob Frege (On Sense and Reference [1892]) by Michael Dummett - Frege philosophy of mathematics Ch.2

Book Reference

Dummett,Michael: 'Frege: philosophy of mathematics' [Duckworth 1991], p.13


A Reaction

The important point must be that the later theory depends on the earlier, so we can hardly give theories of understanding, if we don't have a view about what it is that is understood.