QUINE’S PROXY-FUNCTION ARGUMENT FOR THE INDETERMINACY OF REFERENCE AND FREGE’S CAESAR PROBLEM

In his logical foundation of arithmetic, Frege faced the problem that semantic interpretation system does not determine reference abstract terms completely. The contextual definition number, for instance, decide whether number 5 is identical to Julius Caesar. a late writing, Quine claimed indeterminacy established by Frege’s Caesar special case proxy-function argument. present paper aims show really support conclusions draws from On contrary, it reveals Quine’s argument non sequitur: establish there are alternative interpretations our equally correct, but only these ambiguous. latter kind referential implies almost all sentences overall theory world either false or neither true nor false, because they contain definite descriptions whose uniqueness presupposition fulfilled. must therefore be regarded as reductio ad absurdum behaviorist premise determined linguistic behavior.