Frege's Detour

John Perry offers a rethinking of Frege's seminal contributions to philosophy of language, which had a dominant influence on the subject in the twentieth century. He argues that Frege's famous doctrine of indirect reference led philosophers on a detour, and he advocates a move to a new framework for understanding reference.

John Perry is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University and at the University of California, Riverside. He received his BA from Doane College in 1964 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1968. Perry was the founder- and for many years the co-host-of the nationally syndicated radio show Philosophy Talk. He is also the co-author of the market-leading Introduction to Philosophy, now in its ninth edition. Perry taught at UCLA from 1968 to 1974, before joining Stanford University. He worked at Stanford until his retirement in 2008, and subsequently taught part time at the University of California, Riverside until 2013.

Preface
1: Introduction
2: Frege's Begriffsschrift: Accomplishments
3: Frege's Begriffsschrift: Problems
4: Sense and denotation: The Theory
5: "On Sense and Denotation"
6: Solving the Identity Problems
7: Disarming the Slingshot
8: Integrating Frege's Theories
9: Episodes and Attitudes
10: Conclusion
List of examples