Reference no: EM132452051

1. Explain Frege's distinction between an expression's sense and its reference. Explain Frege's compositionality principle for sense and his compositionality principle for reference. What, in Frege's view, is the reference of a complete sentence? What is the sense of a complete sentence? Suppose that the sentence, "Nixon said that Deep Throat talked to the Washington Post" is true, but the sentence "Nixon said that Mark Felt talked to the Washington Post" is false. Why might this difference between the sentences' respective truth-values seem to present a problem for Frege's compositionality principle for references? (Remember: Mark Felt is Deep Throat!) Explain how Frege's theory of indirect reference enables him to resolve that problem.

2. Explain Russell's second puzzle about denoting. What is so puzzling about the sentences "The present King of France is bald" and "The present King of France is not bald"? How does Russell solve the puzzle? (Hint: part of the answer will require you to explain Russell's distinction between primary and secondary occurrences of a definite description. Hint #2: remember that resolving the puzzle will require us to state the Law of Excluded Middle with greater precision than Russell does when he first states the puzzle.) How would Frege deal with this puzzle?

3. Explain Russell's first puzzle about denoting. What is so puzzling about the sentence, "George IV wished to know whether Scott was the author of Waverly" (given that Scott was the author of Waverly)? How does Russell solve the puzzle? (Hint: you don't need to talk about Russell's first point, that the premise "Scott was the author of Waverly" is not of the form, "a = b". You do, however, need to discuss Russell's distinction between primary and secondary occurrences of definite descriptions.) How would Frege attempt to solve this puzzle? (Hint: explain Frege's theory of indirect reference, and show how he would use it to solve the puzzle.)

4. Describe the structure and contents of the proposition expressed by sentence "Barack Obama is left-handed," according to the theory that Russell advances in his 1903 book, Principles of Mathematics. Still using Russell's 1903 theory, Page 2 of 2 explain the structure and contents of the proposition expressed by the sentence, "Some world leader is left-handed." Be sure to explain Russell's rationale for any important differences between these two propositions. (Hint: use Russell's principles to explain why the combination of objects denoted by "Some world leader" cannot be a constituent of the second proposition.) Explain the asymmetry problem for Russell's Principles of Mathematics (1903) analysis of sentences containing denoting phrases. Give a specific example, using two (carefully chosen!) sentences, to illustrate the asymmetry problem. How does Russell's "On Denoting" (1905) analysis of sentences containing denoting phrases circumvent the asymmetry problem?

5. What is descriptivism? Why is Russell considered a descriptivist? (Hint: focus on the form that Russell's philosophy took after he embraced sense-data theory.) What features of Frege's philosophy have led many philosophers to classify him as a descriptivist? What is the cluster theory of names, and what was the main problem with descriptivism that it was intended to solve? Explain at least two of Kripke's objections to descriptivism. Explain Kripke's own view of the conditions that determine a name's reference.