Frege vs. Idealism In a nut shell Idealism is the position that IDEAS, not objects, are the basis of reality. So for idealists the meaning of an expression is the idea associated with that expression. For example, if one were to think of a ‘lamp’, then under the idea theory of reference the visual image that we ‘pull up’ would be the meaning of the expression ‘lamp’. Frege rejects the idea theory of reference because …showed first 75 words of 253 total…

…showed last 75 words of 253 total…language is obviously possible, then it must be the idea theory of reference that is false. If ideas are private then the idealist would have to explain how language is possible since the ideas about an object are in ones head and no other person can have the same idea. So for Frege, language presupposes that there are intersubjective objects that we can talk about. Therefore, sense and reference are objective if language is possible.