Sense and reference
![Die Gleichheit fordert das Nachdenken heraus durch Fragen, die sich daran knüpfen und nicht ganz leicht zu beantworten sind. Equality gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer](/Images/godic/202501/08/Ueber_Sinn_und_Bedeutung_Frege_18924807.jpg")
![Hesperus](/Images/godic/202501/08/Mengs,_Hesperus_als_Personifikation_des_Abends4807.jpg")
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The distinction between sense and reference was an innovation of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege in 1892, reflecting the two ways he believed a singular term may have meaning. The reference (or "referent", German: bedeutung)) of a proper name is the object it means or indicates (bedeuten), its sense is what the name expresses. The reference of a sentence is its truth value, its sense is the thought that it expresses. Frege justified the distinction in a number of ways.