Frege Explained (eBook)

What is the number one? How can we be so sure that 2 + 2 = 4 ? These apparently simple questions have perplexed philosophers for thousands of years, but discussion of them was transformed by the German philosopher Gottlob Frege (1848-1925). No present-day investigation of the nature of numbers or the truth of mathematics can proceed in ignorance of Frege. Frege was convinced that the truths of arithmetic and of all mathematics are derived from self-evident logical truths. His attempt to prove this conviction in detail became his life’s work, and it tragically failed when an unresolved contradiction emerged at the heart of his system. Yet Frege’s new way of looking at logic and mathematics was influential: his discussion revolutionized logic and founded modern analytic philosophy. Joan Weiner presents a clear and accurate introduction to Frege’s ideas, tracing the development of his thought and making the essential concepts understandable. From Frege’s invention of a powerful new logical language in Begriffsschrift, through his explication of his project in The Foundations of Arithmetic and his famous articles such as On Sense and Meaning’, to the brilliant, but ultimately doomed, presentation of his elaborate system in Basic Laws of Arithmetic, Professor Weiner brings out Frege’s objectives and his assumptions, enabling the reader to grasp the originality and depth of his thought.