Frege: Philosophy of Language
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Michael Dummett |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Gottlob Frege |
| Publisher | Duckworth Overlook |
Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 752 (1993 Harvard University Press edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0674319318 |
Frege: Philosophy of Language (1973; second edition 1981) is a book about Gottlob Frege by the British philosopher Michael Dummett.[1]
Summary
Dummett explains and champions Frege's philosophy.[2] Discussing Frege's view that the sense of a term is the route to its reference, and therefore cannot be specified in such a way that the reference becomes irrelevant to its use, Dummett interprets the idea of a route to reference in epistemological terms, as a procedure for discovering the reference of a term. Dummett also provides a rival way of arguing for conclusions about names similar to Saul Kripke's view of them as "rigid designators".[3]
Reception
The book has been highly influential. Together with Frege: Philosophy of Mathematics (1991), it is Dummett's chief contribution to Frege scholarship.[2] However, Dummett's epistemological interpretation of the idea of a route to reference has been seen as unnecessary by Daniel Dennett. The philosopher Roger Scruton, writing in Sexual Desire (1986), endorsed Dennett's view.[4]
References
Footnotes
- ↑ Lowe 2005. p. 222.
- 1 2 Lowe 1999. p. 247.
- ↑ Scruton 1994. pp. 370, 397, 416.
- ↑ Scruton 1994. p. 416.
Bibliography
- Books
- Lowe, E. J. (1999). Audi, Robert, ed. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-63722-8.
- Lowe, E. J. (2005). Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926479-1.
- Scruton, Roger (1994). Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation. London: Phoenix. ISBN 1-85799-100-1.