[Inquiry] Re: Fractured Frege Tales -- Discussion

[Jon Awbrey]

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FFT.  Discussion Note 3

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JA = Jon Awbrey
TC = Theresa Calvet

Re: FFT 2.  http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-March/002470.html
In: FFT.    http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-March/thread.html#2463

JA: Thanks, Theresa.  Can I take that as an agreement?

TC: Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that it is, indeed,
    a bias to state that "logic was invented by Frege",
    or that Frege discovered the quantifier, "not only
    in the sense of discovering it four years earlier than
    O.H. Mitchell (Peirce's student and co-worker"), but in
    the sense that it was Frege who, so to speak, launched the
    whole mighty ship by himself" (H. Putnam, "Peirce the Logician"
    [1982], 'Realism with a Human Face', ed. James Conant, Harvard
    University Press, 1990, p. 255).  No, if you simply wanted to
    minimize Frege's contribution.  I would prefer a fair-minded
    statement of the historical importance of both Peirce and
    Frege.

Theresa,

Don't get me wrong -- Frege was among my favorite reading as an undergrad,
and I do not think that I minimize his achievements in saying that he did
not discover "objects" in any sense of the word worth continuing to have.
Frege himself, at least as I remember, was quite clear about the bounds
of his methods and the limits of his interest, and he showed a capacity
for correcting his errors when he found them that many of his disciples
still lack.  I can hardly imagine Frege himself making or even thinking
such a statement as Dummett makes, and if I find one like that I would
re-evaluate my estimate of his sensibility.  In general, then, I am
talking about the statements of his self-proclaimed interpreters.
They have fractured Frege in trying to stretch his tale too far.

Jon Awbrey

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