Frege’s Ambiguous Legacy (guest post)
“We ought to ask ourselves, how did Frege’s claim to expertise in the matter of thinking fare, at that crucial moment when Germany most needed its intellectuals to rise to the defense of the endangered democratic ideals of civic equality, popular sovereignty and international solidarity? Like Heidegger, Schmitt and many others, Frege failed this test, welcoming fascism and the spread of eliminationist antisemitism with unreserved enthusiasm…” In the following guest post, Stephen D’Arcy, associate professor of philosophy at Huron University, discusses the political views of Gottlob Frege, their connection to his philosophical ideas, and the role they should play in our assessment of the influential philosopher. This post is part of a series of guest posts by different authors at Daily Nous this summer. – Frege’s Ambiguous Legacy by Stephen D’Arcy As we approach the centenary of his death, we can expect attempts to be made in the coming months to offer wide-ranging overviews of Gottlob Frege’s achievements as a philosopher. And why not? Frege was one of the founding figures of analytic philosophy, the most important logician of modern times, and arguably the main impetus behind the “linguistic turn” in 20th-century thought. In view of these accomplishments, many assessments of Frege’s legacy will likely take the form of “tributes,” depicting him in an idealized way, as a kind of exemplar of intellectual virtue, to be admired and even emulated. No doubt a few admirers will invoke Bertrand Russell’s hagiographical remark about how Frege reacted to Russell’s discovery of an inconsistency in the logical system that Frege hoped would provide a foundation for arithmetic: As I think about acts of integrity and grace, I realize that there is nothing in my knowledge to compare with Frege’s dedication to truth. His entire life’s work was on the verge of completion, much of his work had been ignored to the benefit of men infinitely less capable, his second volume was about to be published, and upon finding that his fundamental assumption was in error, he responded with intellectual pleasure clearly submerging any feelings of disappointment. It was almost superhuman and a telling indication of that of which men are capable if their dedication is to creative work and knowledge instead of cruder efforts to..
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2024-08-15 12:10:09
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"content": "Frege’s Ambiguous Legacy (guest post)\n\n“We ought to ask ourselves, how did Frege’s claim to expertise in the matter of thinking fare, at that crucial moment when Germany most needed its intellectuals to rise to the defense of the endangered democratic ideals of civic equality, popular sovereignty and international solidarity? Like Heidegger, Schmitt and many others, Frege failed this test, welcoming fascism and the spread of eliminationist antisemitism with unreserved enthusiasm…” In the following guest post, Stephen D’Arcy, associate professor of philosophy at Huron University, discusses the political views of Gottlob Frege, their connection to his philosophical ideas, and the role they should play in our assessment of the influential philosopher. This post is part of a series of guest posts by different authors at Daily Nous this summer. – Frege’s Ambiguous Legacy by Stephen D’Arcy As we approach the centenary of his death, we can expect attempts to be made in the coming months to offer wide-ranging overviews of Gottlob Frege’s achievements as a philosopher. And why not? Frege was one of the founding figures of analytic philosophy, the most important logician of modern times, and arguably the main impetus behind the “linguistic turn” in 20th-century thought. In view of these accomplishments, many assessments of Frege’s legacy will likely take the form of “tributes,” depicting him in an idealized way, as a kind of exemplar of intellectual virtue, to be admired and even emulated. No doubt a few admirers will invoke Bertrand Russell’s hagiographical remark about how Frege reacted to Russell’s discovery of an inconsistency in the logical system that Frege hoped would provide a foundation for arithmetic: As I think about acts of integrity and grace, I realize that there is nothing in my knowledge to compare with Frege’s dedication to truth. His entire life’s work was on the verge of completion, much of his work had been ignored to the benefit of men infinitely less capable, his second volume was about to be published, and upon finding that his fundamental assumption was in error, he responded with intellectual pleasure clearly submerging any feelings of disappointment. It was almost superhuman and a telling indication of that of which men are capable if their dedication is to creative work and knowledge instead of cruder efforts to..\nThe post https://dailynous.com/2024/08/15/freges-ambiguous-legacy-guest-post/\n.\n\nhttps://dailynous.com/2024/08/15/freges-ambiguous-legacy-guest-post/",
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