1. I agree with Frege’s statement of a = a and a = b having the same truth value, but not the same sense. Frege gives a great example of this with the statement, “the Morning Star” and “the Evening Star” have the same referent (the planet Venus)” (pg 33). The “Morning star” and “Evening Star’, when switched does not change the actual truth to a sentence because they are references to the same word (Venus), but for some people we would get a different sense if they are not used to seeing ‘Evening Star’, or ‘Morning Star’
2. I disagree that people cannot have the same conception. Frege states a conception is an “internal image, arising from memories of sense impressions which I have had.” (29), which should be unique to each individual. I think that if two people who were born blind both regained site and saw only one item, they would have the same internal image of an object.
3. What does Frege mean whey he states, “While it is possible for a conceptions to have differences between people, meaning it is comparable, they cannot be exactly compared, because we cannot have both conceptions in the same consciousness” (pg 31). I am more specifically confused about the “because we cannot have both conceptions in the same consciousness) part.
I think I can provide some help here. Frege believes that for a word, it firstly has a referent, which is an object, then,it has a sense, which is a connotation of that object, and finally, it refers to a conception, which Frege believes to be PRIVATE. Here, the conception in Frege's term, is identical to ideas in our mind. Ideas are private, e.g. my idea of cat in my mind and your idea of cat in your mind may be slightly different. Yet Frege highlights here that such difference cannot be exactly compared since one cannot transmit one's ideas directly into other people's minds. Thus, that is to say, you cannot have my idea of a cat in your mind due to the fact that ideas are private and people are not able to perform telepathy. In this ways, "both conceptions in the same consciousness" denotes a impossible circumstance where, one can get a hold of ideas in another individual's mind.
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ReplyDeleteI think I can provide some help here. Frege believes that for a word, it firstly has a referent, which is an object, then,it has a sense, which is a connotation of that object, and finally, it refers to a conception, which Frege believes to be PRIVATE. Here, the conception in Frege's term, is identical to ideas in our mind. Ideas are private, e.g. my idea of cat in my mind and your idea of cat in your mind may be slightly different. Yet Frege highlights here that such difference cannot be exactly compared since one cannot transmit one's ideas directly into other people's minds. Thus, that is to say, you cannot have my idea of a cat in your mind due to the fact that ideas are private and people are not able to perform telepathy. In this ways, "both conceptions in the same consciousness" denotes a impossible circumstance where, one can get a hold of ideas in another individual's mind.
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