Saying and understanding in Frege

• Grant number: 21/00063-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2021
• End date: September 27, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: João Vergílio Gallerani Cuter
• Grantee: João Lucas Pimenta da Silva Pinto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/12570-8 - The bounds of Fregean sense, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The goal of our research is to investigate the various aspects of the connection between language and thought, or (equivalently) between language and sense, according to Frege's philosophy. More specifically, we intend to establish what is essentially involved in the meaningful use of language and in the understanding of language (i.e., what essentially constitutes saying and understanding an utterance) from Frege's standpoint. Our central working hypothesis is that the dimensions of language and thought, although usually in immediate correspondence to each other, are not indistinguishable or inseparable: there are, in certain cases, necessary conditions to be met for a given utterance to be able to express a thought and for a thought to be apprehended from a given utterance; and the non-fulfillment of such conditions entails, in those cases, the lack of sense of the utterance. We also suggest that such conditions, insofar as they mark the boundary between sense and nonsense, should be seen as limits to the expressive power of language - although, from a Fregean perspective, the very notion of a limit of language seems coherently applicable only to a restricted class of utterances, defined by the types of linguistic expressions that make up these utterances.Our research itinerary shall include the investigation of the extent to which, for Frege, natural language utterances are able to express thoughts; the consideration of what types of factors can plausibly be recognized as conditions for the meaningfulness of expressions belonging to certain semantic categories; and, finally, the evaluation of the possibility of establishing, according to a Fregean conception of language, conditions and limits of a universal kind (i.e., applicable to all kinds of utterances) when it comes to linguistic sense. (AU)