#frege

[Frege] observes that, among the many purposes language can be used to serve, logical perfection is not paramount. The logical relations between concepts are hidden and it is difficult to grasp the patterns of argument really underlying our transitions from one thought to another. Thus, according to Frege, if we are to uncover logical form we must not follow too closely the outline of the dress which clads our thoughts. This ‘dress’ is the grammatical (in contrast with the logical) structure of historically grown languages; it is through grammar that psychology exerts its power and influences and distorts our understanding of the thoughts imperfectly expressed by natural language. Even the employment of a given system of signs or an artificial notation will entail a mixing of intuitive and purely conceptual elements. Plainly, if a logical critique of language is to be feasible by linguistic means or by resorting to an artificial notation, thinking and speaking must not be identified: otherwise there would be no way of pulling ourselves out of that particular predicament by our own bootstraps.

30 October 2024,