Frege on the tolerability of sense variation: a reply to Michaelson and Textor

Pickel, B. and Carter, J. A. (2024) Frege on the tolerability of sense variation: a reply to Michaelson and Textor. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, (Accepted for Publication)

Abstract

In several passages, Frege suggests that successful communication requires that speaker and audience understand the uttered words and sentences to have the same sense. On the other hand, Frege concedes that, in many ordinary cases, variation in sense is tolerable. In a recent article in this journal, Michaelson and Textor (2023) offer a new interpretation of Frege on the tolerability of sense variation according to which variation in sense is tolerable when the conversation aims at joint action, but not when the conversation aims at joint thought. We maintain, contra Michaelson and Textor, that whether sense variation is tolerable does not depend on the conversational purpose, whether it be theoretical or practical. Rather, whether sense variation is tolerable depends instead on the conversational background. This picture offers what we take to be a more plausible reconstruction of Frege’s own view.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Carter’s research is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Expanding Autonomy (AH/W005077/1) and Digital Knowledge (AH/W008424/1) projects and the Leverhulme Trust’s A Virtue Epistemology of Trust project (RPG-2019- 302).
• Keywords: Frege, sense variation, linguistic communication, theoretical and practical reasoning.
• Status: Accepted for Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Pickel, Dr Bryan and Carter, Professor J Adam
• Authors: Pickel, B., and Carter, J. A.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy
• Journal Name: Australasian Journal of Philosophy
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0004-8402
• ISSN (Online): 1471-6828

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
310737		Expanding Autonomy: Scaffolded, Embedded and Distributed	Joseph Carter	Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)	AH/W005077/1	Arts - Philosophy
316175		Digital Knowledge: a new framework for digital epistemic virtues	Joseph Carter	Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)	AH/W008424/1	Arts - Philosophy
306621		A Virtue Epistemology of Trust	Joseph Carter	Leverhulme Trust (LEVERHUL)	RPG-2019-302	Arts - Philosophy