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Taking a philosophy of language, and we're on Frege's Sense and Reference. I've been having trouble understanding it and was wondering if anyone could perhaps put a short summary (perhaps in bullet form) of the main points and perhaps some tips?
Thanks a lot.
Frege is pretty challenging and Im actually more acquainted with Wittgenstein but I have a basic knowledge of some of Freges main concepts so I hope this helps. His main question is how the "sense"(presentation of signifier) affects and is related to the meaning of the sign and how an object represented by a sign(signified) is related to the meaning of the sign. so basically he is just wondering the relation between signification and meaning(sense and reference). If the sense(signified) is changed it can still correspond with the object it is signifying. EX: in English you say cow, in french it is vache, the sense is presented differently but the meaning is the same for both. Frege realizes that the relationship between meaning and the sign is not fixed and questions the logic underlying language. Thats really the extent of my knowledge of Frege but I hope it helps.