In his early
writings on language, the great logician Gottlob Frege held that the meaning of
a name is its reference. For example, the meaning of the name "Mont
Blanc" is the mountain itself. But, in later writings, Frege argued that
two names may have the same reference, yet differ in meaning. He reasoned that
if the meaning of a name is just its reference, and two names have the same
reference, then it should make no difference to the meaning of a sentence which
name occurs in it Since "Hesperus" and "Phosphorus" are
both names of the planet Venus, (l) "Hesperus is Phosphorus" and (2)
"Hesperus is Hesperus" should have the same meaning. But Frege
observed that they do differ in meaning, since (1) expresses a significant
astronomical discovery, while (2) is a triviality. The explanation of why they
differ in meaning is Frege's Puzzle. Frege's solution is that the meaning of a
name is not only its reference, but also its sense. The sense of a name is a condition that picks
out the individual (if there is one) that satisfies that condition as the
name's reference. Frege says that "Hesperus" and
"Phosphorus" have different senses that pick out the same reference.
This, he says, explains how (l) can be informative, while (2) is a triviality.
Much 20th-century philosophy of language involves a discussion of Frege's
notion of sense.
Remember: If
"Hesperus" and "Phosphorus" are just different names for
the same thing-the planet Venus-how can it be that "Hesperus is
Phosphorus" and "Hesperus is Hesperus" differ in meaning?
Additionally:
Many philosophers find the notion of sense obscure. The logician Saul Kripke
argued that proper names do not have senses at all. In his view the reference
of a proper name is not determined by a sense but by a chain of uses of the name
that begins with an act of naming. For example, you may use the name
"Thales" to refer to a certain preSocratic philosopher even though
you don't know anything about him, as long as you acquired the name from
someone who used it to refer to Thales.
source
30-SecondPhilosophies by Barry Loewer
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