FREGE: Philosophy of Language

This is the definitive work on the philosophy of Gottlob Frege, one of the fundamental figures in modern philosophy. There is no standard work on Frege, who is the source figure for Russell, Wittgenstein, and all others in modern philosophy.
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Nearly ten years in the writing by Michael Dummett of Oxford, the present work deals with Frege's philosophy of language; a second volume will treat his philosophy of mathematics. The book is an exposition and an evaluation. Frege was the initiator of the modern period in the study of logic. His philosophical logic came at the time when logic was to replace epistemology (the theory of knowledgi) as the starting point in philosophy. Frege's first important undertaking involved framing a formal language adequate for the expression of any mathematical statement or any train of mathematical reasoning. His explanation and justification of his views led him into profwnd discussions of issues of general philosophical interest, in particular the notions of the meaning of an expression and of analytic truth.