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Full Idea
Whoever is afraid of symbols can hardly hope to acquire exact ideas where it is necessary to distinguish 1) the variable in itself as opposed to its value, 2) any value of the variable, 3) all values, 4) some value.
Gist of Idea
We can't sharply distinguish variables, domains and values, if symbols frighten us
Source
Bertrand Russell (Review: Meinong 'Untersuchungen zur..' [1905], p.84)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'Essays in Analysis', ed/tr. Lackey,Douglas [George Braziller 1973], p.84
A Reaction
Not the best example, perhaps, of the need for precision, but a nice illustration of the new attitude Russell brought into philosophy.
| 19231 | Metaphysics is turning into logic, and logic is becoming mathematics [Peirce] |
| 22270 | Frege changed philosophy by extending logic's ability to check the grounds of thinking [Potter on Frege] |
| 15948 | Frege developed formal systems to avoid unnoticed assumptions [Frege, by Lavine] |
| 21573 | When problems are analysed properly, they are either logical, or not philosophical at all [Russell] |
| 6116 | A logical language would show up the fallacy of inferring reality from ordinary language [Russell] |
| 21546 | We can't sharply distinguish variables, domains and values, if symbols frighten us [Russell] |
| 22436 | Logicians don't paraphrase logic into language, because they think in the symbolic language [Quine] |
| 8996 | If if time is money then if time is not money then time is money then if if if time is not money... [Quine] |
| 15802 | I use variables to show that each item remains the same entity throughout [Chisholm] |
| 15210 | Humeans see analysis in terms of formal logic, because necessities are fundamentally logical relations [Harré/Madden] |
| 13515 | To study abstract problems, some knowledge of set theory is essential [Hart,WD] |
| 9766 | Study vagueness first by its logic, then by its truth-conditions, and then its metaphysics [Fine,K] |
| 11051 | Frege's logical approach dominates the analytical tradition [Hanna] |