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Reference.org
Sense and reference
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<p>In the <a href="/facts/Philosophy_of_language/qwNCwF4W">philosophy of language</a>, the distinction between sense and reference was an idea of the German philosopher and mathematician <a href="/facts/Gottlob_Frege/FXyStVYj">Gottlob Frege</a> in 1892 (in his paper "On Sense and Reference"; German: "Über Sinn und Bedeutung"), reflecting the two ways he believed a <a href="/facts/Singular_term/PPw7goPF">singular term</a> may have <a href="/facts/Meaning_(philosophy)/WvFm4kKM">meaning</a>. </p><p>The <a href="/facts/Reference/pLmVxBjJ">reference</a> (or "<a href="/facts/Referent/QfURtq1V">referent</a>"; <i>Bedeutung</i>) of a <i>proper name</i> is the object it means or indicates (<i>bedeuten</i>), whereas its <a href="/facts/Intension/7mY2GaEg">sense</a> (<i>Sinn</i>) is what the name expresses. The reference of a <i>sentence</i> is its <a href="/facts/Extension_(semantics)/MykUsmvj">extension</a>, whereas its sense is the thought that it expresses. Frege justified the distinction in a number of ways. </p> <ol><li>Sense is something possessed by a name, whether or not it has a reference. For example, the name "<a href="/facts/Odysseus/CWIIwKBz">Odysseus</a>" is intelligible, and therefore has a sense, even though there is no individual object (its reference) to which the name corresponds.</li> <li>The sense of different names is different, even when their reference is the same. Frege argued that if an identity statement such as "<a href="/facts/Hesperus/Kd3Vpn5V">Hesperus</a> is the same planet as <a href="/facts/Phosphorus_(morning_star)/kUlzgeof">Phosphorus</a>" is to be informative, the proper names flanking the identity sign must have a different meaning or sense. But clearly, if the statement is true, they must have the same reference. The sense is a 'mode of presentation', which serves to illuminate only a single aspect of the referent.</li></ol> <p>Much of <a href="/facts/Analytic_philosophy/ALSWKaQa">analytic philosophy</a> is traceable to Frege's philosophy of language. Frege's views on logic (i.e., his idea that some parts of speech are complete by themselves, and are analogous to the <a href="/facts/Argument_of_a_function/QkuPc28I">arguments</a> of a <a href="/facts/Function_(mathematics)/CdReEKCh">mathematical function</a>) led to his views on a <a href="/facts/Theory_of_reference/qwNCwF4W">theory of reference</a>. </p>