Gottlob Frege (1848–1925)

É chato ter de criticar um livro mais com base em sua edição do que nos textos, ainda mais quando a edição física afigura-se com um certo luxo, em um bom papel, impressão sólida, formato inusitadamente largo, design elegante. Mas é fato de que se a introdução de Alcoforado já não contribui para aumentar o interesse sobre Frege, suas inúmeras notas de tradutor no meio dos textos geram, se observadas, uma leitura aos tropeços, de ritmo ruim, e cujas intervenções conseguem ser show more notas acadêmicas mas que não esclarecem o leitor preocupado com o conteúdo. Somado a isso, embora os artigos Função e conceito, Sobre o conceito e o objeto, Sobre o sentido e a referência, Digressões sobre o sentido e a referência e Que é uma função são todos beirando o genial e recomendadíssimos (****), é de se pensar sobre a escolha da inclusão de outros. Alguns que se assemelham a notas de curiosidade para fãs, outros não são compreensíveis sem adições, e 17 Sentenças Básicas da Lógica é um exemplo que combina ambos, embora bonito e instigante. Enfim, leiam sem olhar as notas de rodapé. show less

“The laws of numbers, therefore, are not really applicable to external things; they are not laws of nature. They are, however, applicable to judgements holding good of things in the external world: they are laws of the laws of nature” (99)

A deep dive into the concept of Number and an attempt to “prove” arithmetic functions to the same degree of rigor the Euclid brought to geometry. Frege spends the early part of the book examining various philosophical treatments of how we fix our show more idea of Number. Following Kant, Frege asks whether numbers are parts of analytic judgements where the meaning is contained in a definitions of itself or if they are parts of synthetic judgements where their meaning is grounded in the world. And are numbers known a priori (as a matter of reason) or a posteriori (known by experience). Eventually he decides that numbers are analytic judgements that we understand a priori (118).

Frege reaches this conclusion, interestingly, by focusing on language use and how numbers are deployed in how we talk about the world. In a statement like “There are three books on the table” the number “three” is used to add meaning to the concept “books on the table” where “books on the table” is something that we can conceive of conceptually, even in the absence of a context where this is true and there are three actual books on the table in front of you. Furthermore, it is a concept that allows for use of a number … in this case three. We would not say of the same of “There are lazy books on the table” because the idea of “laziness” does not belong to the concept of books in the same way. Numbers appearing in sentences with concepts make propositions about those concepts and allow us to formulate judgements about the world that then support claims, intuitions, and applications of those in the world.

In principle, following from Frege’s arguments, it seems possible to work from language and expressions that are allowed and sensible (as described in the Tractatus) to derive a sense of the rules of reason that are at work. However, as someone who works in language, I would say that what we say is at best an unreliable source from which to understand applicable analytic judgements or a priori acts of knowledge. People say things they don’t mean or say things imprecisely all the time. Our choices of grammar, which Frege is taking as an accurate and rule-governed way of determining the edges of the concepts at play, is more driven by intuitive internalization of rules rather than linguistic expressions of a priori rationality.

Still, I like the idea of looking at our choices in language to determine how they define the edges of concepts (via determiners, articles, and pronouns), identify properties about them (via adjectives), locate them in contexts (via prepositions), position interlocutors to them (via metadiscourse), and provide guidance for their uptake and understanding (via verbs). show less

There is much duplication of works published elsewhere, but that is a small price to pay to have the rarer articles and papers previously unavailable in English.

More a factual epic than a thrill-a-minute story