Paper

On Sense and Reference

Gottlob Frege

Two expressions can refer to the same thing while differing in sense — 'the morning star' and 'the evening star' both name Venus but express it differently — which is why identity statements can be informative rather than trivial.

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BegriffsschriftGottlob Frege, 1879Introduces a formal notation for quantifiers and bound variables that can express generality and relations beyond what propositional logic can capture, founding modern predicate logic.

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On DenotingBertrand Russell, 1905A definite description like 'the present King of France' does not refer to anything, and a sentence using it is not meaningless but simply false, once its underlying logical form is properly analysed — the founding move of analytic philosophy of language.
MeaningH. P. Grice, 1957Distinguishes what a sign naturally means from what a speaker means by using it, and analyses speaker-meaning as intending an audience to form a belief by means of recognising that very intention.
On ReferringP. F. Strawson, 1950Argues against Russell that a sentence like 'the present King of France is bald' is not straightforwardly false but fails to say anything true or false at all, because using a definite description presupposes rather than asserts that something answers to it.

Filed under Philosophy of Language in Philosophy.