In case of word-reference, the domain or the range of object is fixed but in case of sentences, they do not only refer to the thoughts of the expressions but also can be judged as either true or false. For Dummett, every thought can be assessable if it is found in the empirical world. In this sense, thoughts and language are interlinked with each other. As Bell puts it, "a thought of mine can be put into a form of words which will be understood by someone else to whom the thought is entirely new." (Bell, 1996, 585). In this connection, Frege states that:
"it is astonishing what language can do. With a few syllables it can express an incalculable number of thoughts, so that even if a thought has been grasped by an inhabitant of the earth for the very first time, a form of words can be found in which it will be understood by someone else to whom it is entirely new. This would not be possible, if we could not distinguish parts of the thought corresponding to the parts of a sentence, so that the structure of the sentence can serve as a model of the structure of the thoughts" (Frege, 1984, 390).
Further, David Bell while characterizing thought says that it is "communicable, expressible, inter-subjective, and above all, capable of being objectively true or false " (Bell, D., 1996, 586). In this regard, Frege holds the view that:
"a thought of which we are conscious is connected in our mind with some sentence or other is necessary for us humans. But that does not lie in the nature of the thoughts, but in our own nature. There is no contradiction in supposing there to exist beings that can grasp the same thought as we do without needing to clad it in a [linguistic] form…. But still, for us human beings there is this necessity" (Frege, 1979, 269).
On the above account, it is conceived that thoughts are logically embedded with the propositions. So every proposition is endowed with thought. As a result, every proposition can be judged as either true or false. More to say, thoughts are invariant and logically coherent with the propositions. Thoughts are objective, eternal, shareable and transmitted from generation to generation. Thus, thoughts do not belong to any psychological activity where mental phenomena are one of the features of it. Frege made it clear by stating that thoughts are not acts of thinking because an act of thinking is a psychological process whereas thoughts are not. The apprehension of thought is called thinking. In thinking we do not produce thoughts but simply apprehend them. When we are thinking about thoughts, we may refer to them without expressing them. For example, I am thinking, "the weakest additional premise that would make the argument valid. "8Here we are referring to that proposition which is represented in the form of a premise in the argument without expressing that proposition.
| 8 | This example is taken from Dummett, M. (1991a). Frege and Other Philosophers. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p.309. |