Reading Frege's Grundgesetze (English, Jr. Heck Richard G.)

Magisterial

I’ve been eagerly (though sporadically) reading this work, so far up to chapter 9. The publication of the translation of the _Grundgesetze_ itself has sidetracked me temporarily, but BookBajar’s robots have been nagging me to review this on the grounds that no-one else has done so. So I’ll note the obvious, that this is a magisterial work of enormous benefit to anyone who is, or will be, reading one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect, and I’m outraged at the academic(s) who delayed it by telling Professor Heck that he wouldn’t get tenure if he worked on Frege. [footnote three of preface]    Much as I’m enjoying it, I do have a few presentational quibbles. The general comment is that I would have appreciated more foreshadowing; sometimes when the author makes a comment about the point to a proof I’ve just struggled through, I would have liked to know the point before the struggle, e.g., at the end of §6.7, and the top of p. 222. Slightly more substantively (but only slightly), the elucidation of (56) on p. 147 is in a slightly different order from the formula elucidated, transposing two conjuncts in the middle line. I’d also suggest the following index entries: <: 187; FA: 7, 11; Grace, Amazing: 200.[Disclaimer: I was at Oxford with Professor Heck, but haven’t spoken with him since.]