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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Frege's distinction between sense and reference allows a name to carry determinate sense even when its reference is incompletely or imperfectly known.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.If sense is what determines reference, severe ignorance about an object's actual properties may leave sense radically indeterminate or misleading.
      ?

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    • 2.The claim conflates linguistic competence with metaphysical determinacy: we may use names consistently without that making sense genuinely determinate.
      ?

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    • 3.Frege himself tied sense to descriptive content; minimal or false descriptions yield sense too thin to guide reference determinately without external knowledge.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Sense determines reference via conceptual content, so a name can have determinate sense independently of how completely we know what it denotes.
      ?

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    • 2.We successfully communicate about distant planets and historical figures despite incomplete knowledge, suggesting sense operates prior to full reference-knowledge.
      ?

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    • 3.Scientific terms like 'water' had stable meaning before complete chemical analysis, showing sense doesn't require exhaustive reference-knowledge.
      ?

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