Logicism and the Philosophy of Language

"This is the only anthology devoted solely to classic writings of Frege and Russell. Sullivan's book includes all the classic articles on philosophical logic by Frege and Russell that led from their project of logicism in the foundations of mathematics to our field of the philosophy of language. Everything one might want for a course on these two founders of early analytic philosophy is included, along with a seventy-five-page introduction that carefully lays out the contributions of each essay. No other collection has near so many papers from both Frege and Russell in one volume."

--Bernard Linsky, University of Alberta'

University of Chicago Press Web Site, February, 2004

Logicism and the Philosophy of Language brings together the core works by Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell on logic and language. In their separate efforts to clarify mathematics through the use of logic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Frege and Russell both recognized the need for rigorous and systematic semantic analysis of language. It was their turn to this style of analysis that would establish the philosophy of language as an autonomous area of inquiry. This anthology gathers together these foundational writings, and frames them with an extensive historical introduction. This is a collection for anyone interested in questions about truth, meaning, reference, and logic, and in the application of formal analysis to these concepts.

Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies; complimentary copies remain readily available to adopters and to academics very likely to adopt this title in the coming academic year. When adoption possibilities are less strong and/or further in the future, academics are requested to purchase the title at an academic discount, with the proviso that Broadview will happily refund the purchase price (with or without a receipt) if the book is indeed adopted.

Preface
Notes on the Selections

Introduction
I. Overview

II. Philosophical Background
i. Prevalent Ideas about Semantics in Modern Philosophy
ii. A Sketch of Kant's Philosophy
iii. Three Strands in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy

III. The Logicist Thesis
i. The Foundations of Mathematics
ii. Frege's Program
iii. Russell's Rediscovery of Logicism

IV. Philosophical Logic
i. Modern Logic
ii. Function and Argument
iii. Analysis of Language as Philosophical Method

V. Some Disputed Issues in Early Analytic Philosophy
i. Meaning: Semantic Monism and Semantic Dualism
ii. Logical Form: On Denoting
iii. Philosophy of Logic

VI. The Legacy of Logicism
Works Cited

Works of Gottlob Frege
1. Conceptual Notation (1879), Prefeace and Chapter 1
2. On the Scientific Justification of a Conceptual Notation (1882)
3. On the Aim of the "Conceptual Notation" (1882)
4. The Foundations of Arithmetic (1884), Introduction
5. Function and Concept (1891)
6. On Concept and Object (1892)
7. On Sense and Reference (1892)
8. What is a Function? (1904)
9. The Thought: A Logical Inquiry (1918)

Works of Bertrand Russell
10. Mathematics and the Metaphysicians (1901)
11. On Denoting (1905)
12. Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description (1911)
13. Logic as the Essence of Philosophy (1914)
14. Descriptions (1919)
15. Mathematics and Logic (1919)

Sources