Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

The fact that we engage in self-conscious thought can seem philosophically significant.  Indeed, several philosophers have argued that the manifest existence of self-consciousness demonstrates that there is a mind-independent, objective world.  Often, these purported demonstrations take the form of complicated transcendental arguments. In contrast, in his essay ‘The Thought’, Gottlob Frege presents a very simple argument which starts from the premise that one engages in self-conscious thought, to the conclusion that there must be a mind-independent world.  Some philosophers have thought Frege's argument is too simple. In this talk, after reconstructing Frege's argument, I shall argue that they are wrong.