The Frege Reader

by Gottlob Frege, Michael Beaney (Editor)

This is the first single-volume edition and translation of Frege's philosophical writings to include all of his seminal papers and substantial selections from all three of his major works. It is intended to provide the essential primary texts for students of logic, metaphysics and philosophy of language.

It contains, in particular, Frege's four essays 'Function and Concept', 'On Sinn and Bedeutung', 'On Concept and Object' and 'Thought', and new translations of key parts of the Begriffschrift, Grundlagen and Grundgesetze. Additional selections have also been made from his Collected Papers, Posthumous Writings and Correspondence. The editor's introduction provides an overview of the development and significance of Frege's philosophy, highlighting some of the main issues of interpretation. Footnotes, appendices and other editorial material have been supplied to facilitate understanding of the works of one of the central figures in modern philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Logic, Mathematics, Nonfiction, Language, Science, Essays

430 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 1997

About the author

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (German: [ˈɡɔtloːp ˈfreːɡə]) was a German mathematician, logician and philosopher. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern logic and made major contributions to the foundations of mathematics. He is generally considered to be the father of analytic philosophy, for his writings on the philosophy of language and mathematics. While he was mainly ignored by the intellectual world when he published his writings, Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932) and Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) introduced his work to later generations of logicians and philosophers.

Reviews

[Eliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hmm, let me write a couple of essays that will define the project of philosophy for the next 100+ years. That shouldn't be too hard.

[Crito · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely the best reader for a single philosopher. In part this is conditional on Frege himself, whose major works are a short book of philosophy, two technical works of logic, and four or so articles. So in an important earlier collection, Geach and Black included the relevant articles (except Thought) and included partial translations and selections from Begriffsschrift and the Grundgesetze to pick out some really important, clear, and philosophically relevant sections apart from the rest of those works which are just pages and pages of meticulous proofs. Beaney models his reader after Geach and Black and adds far more from Frege's lesser known papers, his unpublished papers, his letters, and important sections from the Grundlagen. Beaney also gives care to summarize the portions that are left out rather than outright cutting them like Geach and Black do. Most readers severely abridge a thinker's corpus to get just a greatest hits, and at worst it could be severely chopped up and near aphoristic. By contrast, not only does this give you everything important to Frege, it offers a wealth of other content you wouldn't even know you were missing otherwise. I would never have known about the unpublished "Notes for Ludwig Darmstaedter" or even thought to look at such a thing, but what I found when I saw it in here was Frege very neatly and briefly summing up the ideas he thought were important and how he came to them, and I was astonished that some suspicions I had about his process were just staring me in the face in this obscure document I would never have otherwise thought to look at. And that's the rare thing about this reader; it gives a comprehensive view of the thinker on top of additional material which is selected to flesh out and clarify the main works. And additionally there are appendices, footnotes, an extensive introduction, brief intros for each individual section, and the original pagination is marked alongside the text for convenience. If Beaney thought to expand the book by 50 more pages to include the entire Grundlagen to regain some real fun and lively sections of criticism, this would be perfect. Although I still miss J.L. Austin's translation even if it makes Frege sound, in Beaney's words, "like an Oxford linguistic philosopher." But in any case, where most philosophy readers act as superfluous introductions, this one acts as maybe the only volume you would need.

Oh, Frege himself? Frege good.

[Alex Tsiatsos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I refer to parts of this book on occasion, most frequently to the essay entitled "The Thought." When I read that essay, I am convinced that am objective world of non-physical objects exists. I don't know what praise could be more meaningful.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Calm before the Storm

[David Gjorgoski · Rating 5 out of 5]

what the hell did they put in the water supply at Jena

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe a review of this book calls for a groundbreaking and breathtaking logical analysis of what the idea contained in Frege's system of philosophy represents, but I just don't think I can measure up to the task. I wouldn't be surprised if my friend and independent scholar William Bies had a thoroughly cogent take on what effects the revolutionary syntax of Frege had on the evolution of mathematics. It's a question worth investigating, in my opinion.

[Sarah Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok only read the first four chapters for a class to be fair. And I know that this was a massive contribution to the philosophy world and all, but I definitely think some of these ideas and sentences could have been communicated easier/better. Thank God for Youtube explainers