Sense and reference

The distinction between sense and reference was an innovation of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege in his 1892 paper "Über Sinn und Bedeutung". According to Frege, sense and reference are two aspects of the meaning of a linguistic expression. The reference of an expression is simply the object that the expression refers to. The sense of an expression, more controversially, is what provides the cognitive significance of the expression. Though the distinction has its home in philosophy of language, it carries over into other areas of philosophy, including philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and metaethics.

Related Topics:
Gottlob Frege - Meaning - Philosophy of language - Philosophy of mind - Metaphysics - Metaethics

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~