Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Frege

  • Ray Monk on Frege, Russell, Patriotism and Prejudice

    Excerpt: The single thing I can imagine Russell finding most shocking would be Frege’s endorsement of patriotism as an unreasoning prejudice. The absence of political insight characteristic of his times, Frege says, is due to “a complete lack of patriotism.” He acknowledges that patriotism involves prejudice rather than impartial thought, but he thinks that is…

  • Sorry Gottlob, Sorry Bertrand

    Attributes are at the things to which they are attributed. Existence, then, is in a broad sense  an attribute of existing items despite adding nothing to the quiddity of the thing to which it is attributed apart from its capacity to have a quiddity.

  • Notes on Idealism, Realism, Frege, and Prichard

    Ed Buckner sent me a pdf the first couple pages of which I reproduce below. Bibliographical data here. Emphases added. My commentary is in blue.  ……………………………………. Twentieth Century Oxford Realism Mark Eli Kalderon and Charles Travis 1 Introduction This is a story of roughly a century of Oxford philosophy told by two outsiders.Neither of us…

  • Defending Barry Miller against Herman Philipse: Existence as a First-Level Property, Part II

    This is the second in a series. Here is the first installment. Read it for context and references. We are still examining only the first premise of Barry Miller's cosmological argument, as sketched by Philipse: 1) Existence is a real first-level accidental property of contingent individuals. Philipse gave two arguments contra. In my first entry…

  • Intentionality for Third-World Entities?

    Commenter John and I are having a very productive discussion about intentionality.  I thank him for helping me clarify my thoughts about this fascinating topic.  I begin with some points on which (I think) John and I agree. a) There is a 'third world' or third realm and it is the realm of abstracta.   (I…

  • ‘Platonic’ Propositions: A Consideration Contra. The Argument from Intrinsic Intentionality

    Commenter John put the following question to me: Which Platonist theories of propositions did you have in mind in your original post, and what are the problems involved in accepting such views? I had in mind a roughly Fregean theory.  One problem with such a view is that it seems to require that propositions possess…

  • Kenny, Geach, and the Perils of Reading Frege into Aquinas

    Here at Maverick Philosopher: Strictly Philosophical.

  • Atomic Sentences and Syncategorematic Elements

    The Ostrich tells me that Frege has no copula. That's not wrong, but there is a nuance that muddies the waters. Suppose Al is fat. The symbolization as Fa suggests the absence of a copula and thus the absence of a syncategorematic element. There appears to be only two categorematic elements, a and F. Well,…

  • Did Kepler Die in Misery?

    Either he did or he didn't. Suppose I say that he did, and you say that he didn't. We both presuppose, inter alia, that there was a man named 'Kepler.'  Now that proposition that we both presuppose, although entailed both by Kepler died in misery and Kepler did not die in misery is no part…

  • Half-Way Fregeanism About Existence: Questions for Van Inwagen

     In section 53 of The Foundations of Arithmetic, Gottlob Frege famously maintains that . . . existence is analogous to number.  Affirmation of existence is in fact nothing but denial of the number nought.  Because existence is a property of concepts the ontological argument for the existence of God breaks down. (65) Frege is here advancing a…

  • Frege’s Horse Paradox, Bradley’s Regress, and the Problem of Predication

    The concept horse is not a concept.  Thus spoke Frege, paradoxically.  Why does he say such a thing?  Because the subject expression 'the concept horse' refers to an object.  It names an object.  Concepts and objects on his scheme are mutually exclusive. No concept is an object and conversely.   Only objects can be named.…

  • Ray Monk on Frege

    Excerpt: The single thing I can imagine Russell finding most shocking would be Frege’s endorsement of patriotism as an unreasoning prejudice. The absence of political insight characteristic of his times, Frege says, is due to “a complete lack of patriotism.” He acknowledges that patriotism involves prejudice rather than impartial thought, but he thinks that is…

  • The Function-Argument Schema in the Analysis of Propositions, Part II

    A second installment from the Ostrich of London.  Another difficulty with the function-argument theory is staring us in the face, but generally unappreciated for what it is. As Geach says, the theory presupposes an absolute category-difference between names and predicables, which comes out in the choice of ‘fount’ [font] for the schematic letters corresponding to…

  • The Function-Argument Schema in the Analysis of Propositions

    The Ostrich of London sends the following to which I add some comments in blue. Vallicella: ‘One of Frege's great innovations was to employ the function-argument schema of mathematics in the analysis of propositions’.   Peter Geach (‘History of the Corruptions of Logic’, in Logic Matters 1972, 44-61) thinks it actually originated with Aristotle, who suggests (Perihermenias 16b6)…

  • Half-Way Fregeanism About Existence

    Another subtle existence entry to flummox and fascinate the Londonistas.  Hell, this Phoenician is flummoxed by it himself.  Ain't philosophy grand? ……………….. In section 53 of The Foundations of Arithmetic, Gottlob Frege famously maintains that . . . existence is analogous to number.  Affirmation of existence is in fact nothing but denial of the number…