Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Abstract₁

• This is not an easy piece. It is rarely voted the most popular essay in the course. The issues seem obscure, the style is pedantic, the humor heavy. But Frege is the single most important philosopher of language and this is perhaps his single most influential article dealing as it does with the general theory of sense and reference.
• With guidance, the beginning student can. in my experience, be led through the article to an appreciation of (if not agreement with) the wonderful (and baroque) theory Frege constructed to deal with the many important philosophical phenomena he was the first (in our tradition at least) to uncover.
• As becomes clear from subsequent readings in this anthology, Frege is almost always a point of departure. Theories in the philosophy of language are constantly being measured against the Fregean standard. One simply cannot consider oneself educated in the philosophy ot language without understanding Frege's views. (See also "Frege (Gottlob) - The Thought: A Logical Inquiry" (1918)).