Sense and Justification

Abstract

To trace the history of discussions of Frege's notion of sense, of his claims about senses, and of alternatives to his views would be to cover much of the philosophy of language of the last hundred years. Of what other notions could this be said? Of truth, or reference, or meaning, perhaps-but they, unlike the notion of sense, are hardly the datable theoretical constructs of one seminal thinker. As the happiest birthday celebrations are for those we expect to be with us for some time, I will be celebrating the centenary of the publication of Uber Sinn und Bedeutung by turning eventually to make some preliminary proposals about the role of Frege's notion of sense in an area of which we currently understand little-the normative theory of justification. This choice of area represents a selection of just one out of many in which there are live and fundamental issues which essentially involve the notion of sense.