The Frege reader. Selected philosophical writings. Edited by Michael Beaney (Q2733971)

This important collection brings together all of \textit{Gottlob Frege}'s seminal papers, substantial parts of all three of his books and selections from his posthumous writings and correspondence. It provides new or revised English translations, so that it should be regarded as the edition of choice for the pieces published in it.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEEach item, 28 in sum, is accompanied by a short introductory note and editorial footnotes, the latter containing cross-references and short editorial comments. The volume is closed by three appendices and a comprehensive index. Appendix 1 gives a chronology of Frege's life and works, based, however, on \textit{T. W. Bynum}'s rather unreliable biography being part of Bynum's edition of Frege's `Conceptual notation and related articles' [Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1-54 (1972)]. There are more reliable biographies available, topped today by \textit{L. Kreiser}'s recent book [Gottlob Frege. Leben -- Werk -- Zeit, Hamburg, Meiner (2001; Zbl 0976.01017)]. Appendix 2 gives an explanation of Frege's logical notation and appendix 3 provides a guide for further reading, serving at the same time as a key to the comprehensive bibliography.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe useful Introduction (pp. 1-46) contains, besides a sketch of Frege's life, works and achievements, ``a brief discussion of two central issues in the interpretation of Frege's philosophy, in order to provide the interested student with some sense of current controversies and the importance of Frege to philosophy today'' (p. 1). The first issue is the context principle which the author presents in its development in Frege's works and its significance for the philosophy of language. The second issue concerns the translation of Frege's term \textit{Bedeutung}. The author argues for his `principle of interpretative integrity': ``if at any point in a text there is a term or passage that raises legitimate questions of exegesis, then, whilst using their interpretative skills to offer the best translation they can, a translator should, if at all possible, note the original word(s) used and justify the translation offered, to enable the reader to make up their own mind about the issues involved'' (p. 39).