Frege's distinction between sense and reference
Sense and reference
Frege's distinction between sense and reference
Frege's theory differentiates between the meaning a term expresses (sense) and the object it refers to (reference). He posits that even if 'morning star' and 'evening star' refer to the same object (Venus), they have different senses because they express different thoughts.
Example
'Morning star' and 'evening star' both refer to Venus, but they convey different information: 'morning star' refers to Venus as seen in the morning, while 'evening star' refers to Venus as seen in the evening.
Understanding this distinction helps clarify how language can convey different meanings even when referring to the same object.
Related concepts
Wittgenstein's later philosophy argues
Wittgenstein's later philosophy posits: "Meaning is use, not reference."
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time (1927)
Theory of descriptions
Russell's theory of descriptions explains meaningful but false statements
Falsifiability
Popper introduced falsifiability as a criterion for scientific theories
The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology
Husserl's crisis argued that positivism neglected the lifeworld's meaning-giving role
Four-dimensionalism
Objects persist by having temporal parts
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