Frege on Multiple Analyses and the Essential Articulatedness of Thought
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/jhap.v5i10.3158Abstract
Frege appears to hold both (a) that thoughts are internally articulated, in a way that mirrors the semantic articulation of the sentences that express them, and (b) that the same thought can be analyzed in different ways, none of which has to be more fundamental than the others. Commentators have often taken these theses to be mutually incompatible and have tended to polarize into two camps, each of which attributes to Frege one of the theses, but maintains that he is only apparently committed to the other. This paper argues (i) that there are good exegetical and philosophical reasons for reconciling the two theses; (ii) that this reconciliation can be achieved by rejecting an assumption shared by the two opposite camps of the exegetical debate, i.e., the assumption that essential articulatedness implies unique articulation; and finally (iii), that this crucial assumption can be resisted by appreciating Frege’s anti-atomistic and ‘organic’ conception of the internal complexity of thoughts.
References
Aristotle, 1984. The Complete Works of Aristotle, 2 vols., edited by J. Barnes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Bell, David, 1979. Frege’s Theory of Judgment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 1981. ‘The Place of the Grundlagen in Frege’s Development.’ Philosophical Quarterly 31: 209–24.
———, 1987. ‘Thoughts.’ Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 28: 36–50.
———, 1996. ‘The Formation of Concepts and the Structure of Thoughts.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 61: 583–96.
Bermúdez, José Luis, 2001. ‘Frege on Thoughts and Their Structure.’ Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 4: 87–105.
Brandom, Robert, 1968. ‘Frege’s Technical Concepts.’ In Frege Synthesized, edited by L. Haaparanta and J. Hintikka, pp. 253–95. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Bronzo, Silver, 2011. ‘Context, Compositionality, and Nonsense in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.’ In Beyond the Tractatus Wars: The New Wittgenstein Debate, edited by R. Read and M. Lavery, pp. 84–111. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.
———, 2015. ‘Words, Sentences, and Speech Acts: An Interpretation and Defense of the Context Principle.’ PhD Dissertation, The University of Chicago.
———, 2017. ‘Frege and Propositional Unity.’ British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25: 750–71.
Burge, Tyler, 2005. Truth, Thought, Reason: Essays on Frege. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Conant, James, 1998. ‘Wittgenstein on Meaning and Use.’ Philosophical Investigations 21: 222–50.
Currie, Gregory, 1985. ‘The Analysis of Thoughts.’ Australian Journal of Philosophy 63: 283–98.
Dummett, Michael, 1981a. The Interpretation of Frege’s Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———, 1981b. Frege: Philosophy of Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———, 1991. Frege and Other Philosophers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Frege, Gottlob, 1879. Begriffsschrift. Halle an der Saale: Louis Nebert. Partially translated in Frege (1997), pp. 47–78.
———, 1879–1891. ‘Logik.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 1–8. Translated as ‘Logic’ in Frege (1979), pp. 1–9.
———, 1880–1881. ‘Booles rechnende Logik und die Begriffsschrift.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 9–52. Translated as ‘Boole’s Logical Calculus and the Concept-Script’ in Frege (1979), pp. 9–46.
———, 1882. Letter to Marty, 29 August 1882. In Frege (1976), pp. 162–65. Translated in Frege (1997), pp. 79–83.
———, 1884. Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik. Breslau: W. Koebner. Translated as The Foundations of Arithmetic, 2nd ed., translated by J. L. Austin. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1980.
———, 1891. Funktion und Begriff. Jena: Hermann Pohle. Translated as ‘Function and Concept’ in Frege (1997), pp. 130–48.
———, 1892a. ‘Über Sinn und Bedeutung.’ Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 100: 25–50. Translated as ‘On Sinn and Bedeutung’ in Frege (1997), pp. 151–71.
———, 1892b. ‘Über Begriff und Gegenstand.’ Vierteljahresschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie 16: 192–205. Translated as ‘On Concept and Object’ in Frege (1997), pp. 181–93.
———, 1893. Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, Band I. Jena: Hermann Pohle. Translated as Frege (2013), vol. I.
———, 1897. ‘Logik.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 137–63. Translated as ‘Logic’ in Frege (1979), pp. 126–51.
———, 1897–1898. ‘Begründung meiner strengeren Grundsätze des Definierens.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 164–70. Translated as ‘The Argument for My Stricter Canons of Definition’ in Frege (1979), pp. 152–56.
———, 1906. ‘Kurze Übersicht meiner logischen Lehren.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 213–18. Translated as ‘A Brief Survey of My Logical Doctrines’ in Frege (1979), pp. 197–202.
———, 1914a. ‘Logik in der Mathematik.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 219–70. Translated as ‘Logic in Mathematics’ in Frege (1979), pp. 203–50.
———, 1914b. Letter to Jourdain, January 1914. In Frege (1976), pp. 127–28. Translated in Frege (1997), pp. 319–21.
———, 1915. ‘Meine grundlegenden logischen Einsichten.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 271–72. Translated as ‘My Basic Logical Insights’ in Frege (1979), pp. 251–52.
———, 1918a. ‘Der Gedanke. Eine Logische Untersuchung.’ Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus I: 58–77. Translated as ‘Thought’ in Frege (1997), pp. 325–45.
———, 1918b. ‘Die Verneinung. Eine Logische Untersuchung.’ Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus I: 143–57. Translated as ‘Negation’ in Frege (1997), pp. 346–61.
———, 1919. ‘Aufzeichnungen für Ludwig Darmstaedter.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 273–77. Translated as ‘Notes for Ludwig Darmstaedter’ in Frege (1979), pp. 253–57.
———, 1923. ‘Logische Untersuchungen. Dritter Teil: Gedankengefüge.’ Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus III: 36–51. Translated as ‘Compound Thoughts’ in Frege (1984), pp. 390–406.
———, 1924–1925. ‘Erkenntnisquellen der Mathematik und der mathematischen Naturwissenschaften.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 286–94. Translated as ‘Sources of Knowledge of Mathematics and the Mathematical Natural Sciences’ in Frege (1979), pp. 267–74.
———, 1969. Nachgelassene Schriften, edited by H. Hermes, F. Kambartel, and F. Kaulbach. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
———, 1976. Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel, edited by G. Gabriel, H. Hermes, F. Kambartel, C. Thiel, and A. Veraart. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
———, 1979. Posthumous Writings, edited by H. Hermes, F. Kambartel, and F. Kaulbach, translated by P. Long and R. White. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 1984. Collected Papers, edited by B. McGuinness. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 1997. The Frege Reader, edited by M. Beaney. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 2004. Frege’s Lectures on Logic: Carnap’s Student Notes, edited and translated by E. H. Reck and S. Awodey. Chicago: Open Court.
———, 2013. Basic Laws of Arithmetic, edited and translated by P. A. Ebert and M. Rossberg with C. Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Garavaso, Pieranna, 1991. ‘Frege and the Analysis of Thoughts.’ History and Philosophy of Logic 12: 195–210.
———, 2013. ‘Four Theses in Frege.’ Paradigmi 3: 43–59.
Geach, P. T., 1975. ‘Names and Identity.’ In Mind and Language, edited by S. Guttenplan, pp. 139–58. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
———, 1976a. Critical Notice of Frege: Philosophy of Language, by M. Dummett. Mind 85: 436–49.
———, 1976b. ‘Saying and Showing in Frege and Wittgenstein.’ In Essays in Honor of G. H. von Wright, edited by J. Hintikka. Acta Philosophica Fennica 28: 54–70.
Geach, P. T. and G. E. M. Anscombe, 1961. Three Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell.
Heck, Richard G. and Robert May, 2011. ‘The Composition of Thoughts.’ Noûs 45: 126–66.
van Heijenoort, Jean, 1977. ‘Frege on Sense Identity.’ Journal of Philosophical Logic 6: 103–08.
Hodes, Harold T., 1982. ‘The Composition of Fregean Thoughts.’ Philosophical Studies 41: 161–78.
Hylton, Peter, 2005. Propositions, Functions and Analysis: Selected Essays on Russell’s Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kemmerling, Andreas, 1990. ‘Gendanken und ihre Teile.’ Grazer Philosophische Studien 37: 1–30.
———, 2010. ‘Thoughts Without Parts: Frege’s Doctrine.’ Grazer Philosophische Studien 82: 165–88.
Kremer, Michael, 2010. ‘Sense and Reference: The Origins and Development of the Distinction.’ In Potter and Ricketts (2010), pp. 220–92.
Levine, James, 2002. ‘Analysis and Decomposition in Frege and Russell.’ The Philosophical Quarterly 52: 195–216.
Moore, G. E., 1903. Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oliver, Alex, 2010. ‘What Is a Predicate?’ In Potter and Ricketts (2010), pp. 118–48.
Penco, Carlo, 2003. ‘Frege: Two Theses, Two Senses.’ History and Philosophy of Logic 24: 87–109.
Potter, Michael and Thomas Ricketts, eds., 2010. The Cambridge Companion to Frege. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ricketts, Thomas, 1996. ‘Truth and Logic in Frege.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 70 suppl. vol.: 121–40.
Russell, Bertrand, 1903. Principles of Mathematics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———, 1904. ‘Fundamental Notions.’ In The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, vol. 4, edited by A. Urquhart, pp. 359–413. London: Routledge, 1994.
Sluga, Hans, 1975. ‘Frege and the Rise of Analytic Philosophy.’ Inquiry 18: 471–98.
———, 1977. ‘Frege’s Alleged Realism.’ Inquiry 20: 227–42.
———, 1980. Gottlob Frege. London: Routledge.
———, 1987. ‘Frege Against the Booleans.’ Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 28: 80–98.
Sullivan, Peter, 1992. ‘The Functional Model of Sentential Complexity.’ Journal of Philosophical Logic 21: 91–108.
———, 2010. ‘Dummett’s Frege.’ In Potter and Ricketts (2010), pp. 86–117.
Textor, Mark, 2009. ‘A Repair of Frege’s Theory of Thoughts.’ Synthese 167: 105–23.
Thompson, Michael, 2008. Life and Action. Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Travis, Charles, 2012. ‘The Proposition’s Progress.’ In The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein, edited by O. Kuusela and M. McGinn, pp. 183–213. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translated by C. K. Ogden. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Bell, David, 1979. Frege’s Theory of Judgment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 1981. ‘The Place of the Grundlagen in Frege’s Development.’ Philosophical Quarterly 31: 209–24.
———, 1987. ‘Thoughts.’ Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 28: 36–50.
———, 1996. ‘The Formation of Concepts and the Structure of Thoughts.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 61: 583–96.
Bermúdez, José Luis, 2001. ‘Frege on Thoughts and Their Structure.’ Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 4: 87–105.
Brandom, Robert, 1968. ‘Frege’s Technical Concepts.’ In Frege Synthesized, edited by L. Haaparanta and J. Hintikka, pp. 253–95. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Bronzo, Silver, 2011. ‘Context, Compositionality, and Nonsense in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.’ In Beyond the Tractatus Wars: The New Wittgenstein Debate, edited by R. Read and M. Lavery, pp. 84–111. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.
———, 2015. ‘Words, Sentences, and Speech Acts: An Interpretation and Defense of the Context Principle.’ PhD Dissertation, The University of Chicago.
———, 2017. ‘Frege and Propositional Unity.’ British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25: 750–71.
Burge, Tyler, 2005. Truth, Thought, Reason: Essays on Frege. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Conant, James, 1998. ‘Wittgenstein on Meaning and Use.’ Philosophical Investigations 21: 222–50.
Currie, Gregory, 1985. ‘The Analysis of Thoughts.’ Australian Journal of Philosophy 63: 283–98.
Dummett, Michael, 1981a. The Interpretation of Frege’s Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———, 1981b. Frege: Philosophy of Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———, 1991. Frege and Other Philosophers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Frege, Gottlob, 1879. Begriffsschrift. Halle an der Saale: Louis Nebert. Partially translated in Frege (1997), pp. 47–78.
———, 1879–1891. ‘Logik.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 1–8. Translated as ‘Logic’ in Frege (1979), pp. 1–9.
———, 1880–1881. ‘Booles rechnende Logik und die Begriffsschrift.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 9–52. Translated as ‘Boole’s Logical Calculus and the Concept-Script’ in Frege (1979), pp. 9–46.
———, 1882. Letter to Marty, 29 August 1882. In Frege (1976), pp. 162–65. Translated in Frege (1997), pp. 79–83.
———, 1884. Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik. Breslau: W. Koebner. Translated as The Foundations of Arithmetic, 2nd ed., translated by J. L. Austin. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1980.
———, 1891. Funktion und Begriff. Jena: Hermann Pohle. Translated as ‘Function and Concept’ in Frege (1997), pp. 130–48.
———, 1892a. ‘Über Sinn und Bedeutung.’ Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 100: 25–50. Translated as ‘On Sinn and Bedeutung’ in Frege (1997), pp. 151–71.
———, 1892b. ‘Über Begriff und Gegenstand.’ Vierteljahresschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie 16: 192–205. Translated as ‘On Concept and Object’ in Frege (1997), pp. 181–93.
———, 1893. Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, Band I. Jena: Hermann Pohle. Translated as Frege (2013), vol. I.
———, 1897. ‘Logik.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 137–63. Translated as ‘Logic’ in Frege (1979), pp. 126–51.
———, 1897–1898. ‘Begründung meiner strengeren Grundsätze des Definierens.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 164–70. Translated as ‘The Argument for My Stricter Canons of Definition’ in Frege (1979), pp. 152–56.
———, 1906. ‘Kurze Übersicht meiner logischen Lehren.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 213–18. Translated as ‘A Brief Survey of My Logical Doctrines’ in Frege (1979), pp. 197–202.
———, 1914a. ‘Logik in der Mathematik.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 219–70. Translated as ‘Logic in Mathematics’ in Frege (1979), pp. 203–50.
———, 1914b. Letter to Jourdain, January 1914. In Frege (1976), pp. 127–28. Translated in Frege (1997), pp. 319–21.
———, 1915. ‘Meine grundlegenden logischen Einsichten.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 271–72. Translated as ‘My Basic Logical Insights’ in Frege (1979), pp. 251–52.
———, 1918a. ‘Der Gedanke. Eine Logische Untersuchung.’ Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus I: 58–77. Translated as ‘Thought’ in Frege (1997), pp. 325–45.
———, 1918b. ‘Die Verneinung. Eine Logische Untersuchung.’ Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus I: 143–57. Translated as ‘Negation’ in Frege (1997), pp. 346–61.
———, 1919. ‘Aufzeichnungen für Ludwig Darmstaedter.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 273–77. Translated as ‘Notes for Ludwig Darmstaedter’ in Frege (1979), pp. 253–57.
———, 1923. ‘Logische Untersuchungen. Dritter Teil: Gedankengefüge.’ Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus III: 36–51. Translated as ‘Compound Thoughts’ in Frege (1984), pp. 390–406.
———, 1924–1925. ‘Erkenntnisquellen der Mathematik und der mathematischen Naturwissenschaften.’ In Frege (1969), pp. 286–94. Translated as ‘Sources of Knowledge of Mathematics and the Mathematical Natural Sciences’ in Frege (1979), pp. 267–74.
———, 1969. Nachgelassene Schriften, edited by H. Hermes, F. Kambartel, and F. Kaulbach. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
———, 1976. Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel, edited by G. Gabriel, H. Hermes, F. Kambartel, C. Thiel, and A. Veraart. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
———, 1979. Posthumous Writings, edited by H. Hermes, F. Kambartel, and F. Kaulbach, translated by P. Long and R. White. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 1984. Collected Papers, edited by B. McGuinness. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 1997. The Frege Reader, edited by M. Beaney. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 2004. Frege’s Lectures on Logic: Carnap’s Student Notes, edited and translated by E. H. Reck and S. Awodey. Chicago: Open Court.
———, 2013. Basic Laws of Arithmetic, edited and translated by P. A. Ebert and M. Rossberg with C. Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Garavaso, Pieranna, 1991. ‘Frege and the Analysis of Thoughts.’ History and Philosophy of Logic 12: 195–210.
———, 2013. ‘Four Theses in Frege.’ Paradigmi 3: 43–59.
Geach, P. T., 1975. ‘Names and Identity.’ In Mind and Language, edited by S. Guttenplan, pp. 139–58. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
———, 1976a. Critical Notice of Frege: Philosophy of Language, by M. Dummett. Mind 85: 436–49.
———, 1976b. ‘Saying and Showing in Frege and Wittgenstein.’ In Essays in Honor of G. H. von Wright, edited by J. Hintikka. Acta Philosophica Fennica 28: 54–70.
Geach, P. T. and G. E. M. Anscombe, 1961. Three Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell.
Heck, Richard G. and Robert May, 2011. ‘The Composition of Thoughts.’ Noûs 45: 126–66.
van Heijenoort, Jean, 1977. ‘Frege on Sense Identity.’ Journal of Philosophical Logic 6: 103–08.
Hodes, Harold T., 1982. ‘The Composition of Fregean Thoughts.’ Philosophical Studies 41: 161–78.
Hylton, Peter, 2005. Propositions, Functions and Analysis: Selected Essays on Russell’s Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kemmerling, Andreas, 1990. ‘Gendanken und ihre Teile.’ Grazer Philosophische Studien 37: 1–30.
———, 2010. ‘Thoughts Without Parts: Frege’s Doctrine.’ Grazer Philosophische Studien 82: 165–88.
Kremer, Michael, 2010. ‘Sense and Reference: The Origins and Development of the Distinction.’ In Potter and Ricketts (2010), pp. 220–92.
Levine, James, 2002. ‘Analysis and Decomposition in Frege and Russell.’ The Philosophical Quarterly 52: 195–216.
Moore, G. E., 1903. Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oliver, Alex, 2010. ‘What Is a Predicate?’ In Potter and Ricketts (2010), pp. 118–48.
Penco, Carlo, 2003. ‘Frege: Two Theses, Two Senses.’ History and Philosophy of Logic 24: 87–109.
Potter, Michael and Thomas Ricketts, eds., 2010. The Cambridge Companion to Frege. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ricketts, Thomas, 1996. ‘Truth and Logic in Frege.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 70 suppl. vol.: 121–40.
Russell, Bertrand, 1903. Principles of Mathematics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———, 1904. ‘Fundamental Notions.’ In The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, vol. 4, edited by A. Urquhart, pp. 359–413. London: Routledge, 1994.
Sluga, Hans, 1975. ‘Frege and the Rise of Analytic Philosophy.’ Inquiry 18: 471–98.
———, 1977. ‘Frege’s Alleged Realism.’ Inquiry 20: 227–42.
———, 1980. Gottlob Frege. London: Routledge.
———, 1987. ‘Frege Against the Booleans.’ Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 28: 80–98.
Sullivan, Peter, 1992. ‘The Functional Model of Sentential Complexity.’ Journal of Philosophical Logic 21: 91–108.
———, 2010. ‘Dummett’s Frege.’ In Potter and Ricketts (2010), pp. 86–117.
Textor, Mark, 2009. ‘A Repair of Frege’s Theory of Thoughts.’ Synthese 167: 105–23.
Thompson, Michael, 2008. Life and Action. Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Travis, Charles, 2012. ‘The Proposition’s Progress.’ In The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein, edited by O. Kuusela and M. McGinn, pp. 183–213. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translated by C. K. Ogden. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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