Frege : a philosophical biography /

The stated objective of this study is to interpret and assess the mathematical and philosophical writings of Gottlob Frege (1848--1925). Though Frege sparked the foundations of analytic philosophy and modern logic, his abiding influence has been overlooked as a result of early criticisms by Bertrand Russell, Kurt Gödel, and Alonzo Church. Jacquette (who was at Univ. of Bern, Switzerland, until his death in 2016) self-describes this book as a "plausible story" of Frege's life, and he constructs the story by highlighting Frege's Begriffsschrift (1879), which seeks the logical basis of mathematics by means of an innovative predicate calculus; his Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik (1884), which demonstrates the first clear concept of number; and his influential analytical papers in the philosophy of language. The posthumous publication of Jacquette's extensive biography after long development with successive editorial and research assistants may account for the questionable translation and interpretation of Frege's writings (Jacquette's previous translation of Frege's The Foundations of Arithmetic, 2007, was similarly criticized). But though it is seriously marred by the author's awkward purple prose about imagined aspects of Frege's life, this study is the most comprehensive biography of Frege available and a thoroughly researched work of love. Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Lee C. Archie, emeritus, Lander University