Tutorial #8. Frege On Sense and Reference. Discussion Questions

After having read Frege's On Sense and Reference, try to think about the following questions.

• What is the compositionality thesis?
• What is Frege’s identity puzzle? Can you give examples?
• What’s the Propositional attitude puzzle?
• How can expressions with the same sense refer to different things?
• Think about ‘Zeus’. How can a proper name have sense without reference?
• Why is the sense of a proper name not an idea in the mind of a thinker?
• Why does Frege think the distinction between sense and meaning is important?
• What are intensions?
• How would you analyze the sentence:
• "Matteo believes that Maria hopes that Miriam fears that Superman will not join us tonight."
• When is the connection between thought and truth-value important, and when is it not?
• How does Frege characterize a "logically perfect language"?