Pacific philosophical quarterly · 1996 · 45 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesPhilosophyLogicPhilosophy Of LanguageSemanticsConceptual SemanticsPredicate LogicTruth Predicate
Abstract: In this paper it is contended, against a challenging recent interpretation of Frege, that Frege should be credited with the first semi‐rigorous formulation of semantic theory. It is argued that the considerations advanced against this contention suffer from two kinds of error. The first involves the attribution to Frege of a sceptical attitude towards the truth‐predicate. The second involves the sort of justification which these arguments assume a classical semantic theory attempts to provide. Finally, it is shown that Frege was in fact mindful of the need for the relevant sort of justification.