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Full Idea
A disjunction is the verbal expression of indecision, or, if a question, of the desire to reach a decision.
Gist of Idea
A disjunction expresses indecision
Source
Bertrand Russell (An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth [1940], 5)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth' [Penguin 1967], p.80
A Reaction
Russell is fishing here for Grice's conversational implicature. If you want to assert a simple proposition, you don't introduce it into an irrelevant disjunction, because that would have a particular expressive purpose.
| 21676 | Epicureans say disjunctions can be true whiile the disjuncts are not true [Epicurus, by Cicero] |
| 16479 | 'Or' expresses hesitation, in a dog at a crossroads, or birds risking grabbing crumbs [Russell] |
| 16481 | 'Or' expresses a mental state, not something about the world [Russell] |
| 16487 | Maybe the 'or' used to describe mental states is not the 'or' of logic [Russell] |
| 16483 | Disjunction may also arise in practice if there is imperfect memory. [Russell] |
| 16480 | A disjunction expresses indecision [Russell] |
| 16465 | In 'S was F or some other than S was F', the disjuncts need S, but the whole disjunction doesn't [Stalnaker] |
| 15424 | Asserting a disjunction from one disjunct seems odd, but can be sensible, and needed in maths [Burgess] |