A gloomy version of redundancy: Frege on the truth-predicate as misleading

Giulia Felappi (University of Southampton), Mark Textor (King's College London)

Abstract: The view that the  truth-predicate is redundant fuels much work on truth. This view can be  traced back to Frege. But unlike current authors, Frege took the  truth-predicate to be a systematically misleading expression. In this  paper we will examine Frege’s arguments for his view and find them suggestive, but wanting. However, Frege’s own view of the sense and reference of ‘that’-clauses will yield a convincing rationale for his position. We will use this result to shed light on the point and purpose of the truth-predicate and on Russell’s main objection to accounts that pair references with senses.