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    Frege's treatment of empty names like 'Odysseus' assigns ... — Carmelics
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    Supports→Frege's refined view raises unresolved questions

    Frege's treatment of empty names like 'Odysseus' assigns them Sinn but no Bedeutung, yet his compositionality principle entails that sentences containing them lack truth values entirely.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Frege consistently distinguishes sense from reference; empty names have cognitive content (sense) without objects, supporting his semantic framework.
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    • 2.Compositionality requires that a sentence's truth value depends on components' references; lacking reference makes truth-value assignment impossible.
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    • 3.Sentences about Odysseus feel meaningful yet lack truth conditions, suggesting Frege correctly identifies a genuine semantic gap in empty-name discourse.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Many sentences with empty names ('Odysseus never existed') seem determinately true or false, contradicting the claim they lack truth values entirely.
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    • 2.Frege's compositionality principle can be weakened: truth-value gaps need not follow if sense alone contributes to sentence content without requiring reference.
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    • 3.The distinction between sense and reference may not entail compositionality works identically for empty and non-empty names; local workarounds preserve coherence.
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    Key Terms

    Bedeutung(Fregean semantics)
    An entity (with truth-values as special cases) or a function from (ordered n-tuples of) entities to truth-values
    Compositionality principle(the logical rule creating tension in Frege's theory)
    The idea that the meaning of a whole sentence is built up from the meanings of its individual words and how they fit together.
    Frege(as a major historical figure in philosophy)
    Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) was a German logician and philosopher who founded modern logic and did groundbreaking work on how language relates to meaning and existence.
    empty names(Philosophy of language; e.g., 'Vulcan', the name introduced for a hypothesized planet between Mercury and the sun.)
    Names which have no referent.
    sinn(Fregean philosophy of language and propositional composition)
    Frege's German term, usually translated as 'sense'; refers to meanings or concepts that serve as the constituents of propositions on the Fregean view.
    truth values(Frege-Church semantic framework)
    The entities that sentences stand for, according to Church's argument; the two truth values being the True and the False.

    Connections

    2 topics

    Philosophy of Language1 linkedSkepticism1 linked

    Related

    Compositionality requires that a sentence's truth value depends on components' r...Frege consistently distinguishes sense from reference; empty names have cognitiv...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    Frege's compositionality principle can be weakened: truth-value gaps need not fo...
    Frege's refined view raises unresolved questions
    +3 moreShow less
    Many sentences with empty names ('Odysseus never existed') seem determinately tr...Sentences about Odysseus feel meaningful yet lack truth conditions, suggesting F...The distinction between sense and reference may not entail compositionality work...