Dummett, Frege, and Phenomenology

Abstract

In this companion volume to Frege: Philosophy of Language, Michael Dummett responds to some of the critics of that first book and also examines some major attempts at interpreting Frege. In doing all this, he, as in the first book, takes up and discusses various hotly debated issues in contemporary philosophy of logic, semantics and epistemology. There may be disagreement as to how successful he is in throwing new light on these issues, but Dummett, to my mind, clearly succeeds in establishing his credentials as the doyen of Frege scholars. He demonstrates superb mastery over Frege texts and skill in handling and interpreting them. Furthermore, in this book he achieves greater focus on the issues of Frege exegesis, something readers of the first book must have missed. This focus is mainly due to the context. Dummett is criticising other interpretations, so he quickly settles down to the texts and interpretive issues, although the tendency — agonisingly marked in the first book — to stray away from the issue under consideration is not altogether absent here too.

Originally appeared in Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 1984.