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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 shows that co-referential terms can differ in cognitive significance, so 'himself' and 'I' cannot be intersubstitutable without loss.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.'Himself' and 'I' occupy different syntactic positions and grammatical roles, so non-intersubstitutability reflects grammar, not cognitive significance.
      ?

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    • 2.Cognitive significance may depend on pragmatic context and speaker knowledge, not intrinsic properties of terms themselves.
      ?

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    • 3.Frege's sense/reference distinction applies to descriptive content, not indexicals whose meaning is fundamentally context-dependent.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.'I' expresses the speaker's self-awareness, while 'himself' expresses third-person reference, creating distinct cognitive content despite same referent.
      ?

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    • 2.Frege's sense/reference distinction shows meaning involves how objects are presented, not just which object is identified.
      ?

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    • 3.Substituting 'I' with 'himself' in 'I am thinking' changes what cognitive capacity is expressed—first-person self-knowledge versus reflexive awareness.
      ?

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