In the
philosophy of language
In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...
, the distinction between concept and object is attributable to the German philosopher
Gottlob Frege
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic phil ...
in 1892 (in his paper "Concept and Object"; German: "Ueber Begriff und Gegenstand").
Overview
According to Frege, any sentence that expresses a singular thought consists of an expression (a
proper name
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', '' Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
or a general term plus the definite article) that signifies an Object together with a predicate (the
copula "is", plus a general term accompanied by the indefinite article or an adjective) that signifies a Concept. Thus "Socrates is a philosopher" consists of "Socrates", which signifies the Object ''Socrates'', and "is a philosopher", which signifies the Concept of ''being a philosopher''.
This was a considerable departure from the traditional
term logic
In philosophy, term logic, also known as traditional logic, syllogistic logic or Aristotelian logic, is a loose name for an approach to formal logic that began with Aristotle and was developed further in ancient history mostly by his followers, th ...
, in which every proposition (i.e. sentence) consisted of two
general terms joined by the copula "is".
The distinction was of fundamental importance to the development of logic and mathematics. Frege's distinction helped to clarify the notions of a
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
, of the membership relation between element and set, and of
empty
Empty may refer to:
Music Albums
* ''Empty'' (God Lives Underwater album) or the title song, 1995
* ''Empty'' (Nils Frahm album), 2020
* ''Empty'' (Tait album) or the title song, 2001
Songs
* "Empty" (The Click Five song), 2007
* ...
and
infinite set
In set theory, an infinite set is a set that is not a finite set. Infinite sets may be countable or uncountable.
Properties
The set of natural numbers (whose existence is postulated by the axiom of infinity) is infinite. It is the only set th ...
s. However, Frege's conception of a class (in his terminology an extension of a concept) differs from the current iterative conception of a set.
Frege's distinction leads to the famous difficulty or "awkwardness of language" that some expressions which purport to signify a concept — Frege's example is "the concept ''horse''" — are grammatically expressions that by his criterion signify an Object. Thus "the concept ''horse'' is not a concept, whereas the city of Berlin is a city".
Anthony Kenny
Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny (born 16 March 1931) is a British philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of Wittgenstein of whose literary esta ...
sought to justify the distinction, other philosophers such as Hartley Slater and
Crispin Wright
Crispin James Garth Wright (; born 21 December 1942) is a British philosopher, who has written on neo-Fregean (neo-logicist) philosophy of mathematics, Wittgenstein's later philosophy, and on issues related to truth, realism, cognitivism, skep ...
have argued that the distinguished category of ''entity'' cannot be associated with predication in the way that individual objects are associated with the use of
singular term A singular term is a paradigmatic referring device in a language. Singular terms are of philosophical importance for philosophers of language, because they ''refer'' to things in the world, and the ability of words to refer calls for scrutiny.
Over ...
s.
References
* Buckner, E. D. review of
Sainsbury, R. M.''Departing from Frege: Essays in the philosophy of language'' Routledge, 2002, .
*
Michael Dummett
Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." He wa ...
. ''Frege: Philosophy of Language'', chap. 7, pp. 211–219.
*
Diamond, Cora. "What does a Concept-Script Do?", sec.II.
* Frege, G. "On Concept and Object", originally published as "Ueber