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[German Version] Many are the meanings of the words “meaning” and “ significance.” Since the beginnings of Greek philosophy, special significance (importance) has been attached to the use of the word significance, which is concerned with the use of signs, especially linguistic signs, as …

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Fundamental Theology I. Philosophy An object (Ger. Gegenstand) is anything to which a predicate can be applied, or to which identificatory reference can be made by way of a proper name, designation, or deictic expression, hence anything with regard to which statements can be made and judgments can be passed. (“Individual,” “entity,” or “object” [Ger. Objekt] are frequently employed in this sense in analytic philosophy.) In the eyes of some philosophers, this understanding of the conception of object is broader than the ¶…

[German Version] I. Philosophy Thinking is a ramified concept. A survey o…

[German Version] Picking up on G. Frege's distinction between significance and mean…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Fundamental Theology – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics I. Philosophy Certainty may be either objective or subjective (Goclenius: certitudo rei cognitae or certitudo hominis cognoscentis). Objective certainty is expressed by “It is certain that p,” subjective certainty by “The epistemic subject S is certain that p.” Objective and subjective certainty are logically independent: one can be certain that p although it is not certain that p; and it can be certain that p although no one is certain that p. It cannot both be certain that p and not certain that p; but one may be certain that p while others are not. The two kinds of certainty are correlated by a normative principle: one has the right to be certain that p only if it is certain tha…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Fundamental Theology – IV. Ethics – V. Practical Theology I. Philosophy To speak of the meaning of a linguistic utterance is ambiguous from a systematic point of view. The various ¶ semantic concepts correspond to various levels of understanding (comprehension of meaning). The first three levels belong to the field of semantics: (

[German Version] I. Linguistics and Literary Studies The problem of the meaning and significance of expressions, linguistic signs, and words has arisen explicitly every time the topic of language has been addressed, at least since the time of Socrates and the Sophistic school (Plato, Cratylus). In antiquity there was still …

[German Version] Its “greatgrandfather” was B. Bolzano, its “grandfather” G. Frege, and its “fathers” G.E. Moore, B. Russell, and L. Wittgenstein: such is the lineage of one of the most influential philosophical movements of the 20th century. In its first phase, analytic philosophy can be described (to use Russell's expression) as …

[German Version] (Nov 8, 1848, Wismar – Jul 26, 1925, Bad Kleinen), gained his Habilitation in mathematics at Jena in 1874 where he became assistant professor in 1879, honorary professor in 1896 and emeritus in 1918. Frege's Begriffschrift (1879; ET: “Concept Script,” in: J. van Heijenoort, ed., From Frege to Gödel, 1967) opened a new epoch in the history of logic and replaced as the paradigm the …