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Full Idea
A proposition may be defined as: what we believe when we believe truly or falsely.
Gist of Idea
A proposition is what we believe when we believe truly or falsely
Source
Bertrand Russell (On Propositions: What they are, and Meaning [1919], p.285)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'Logic and Knowledge', ed/tr. Marsh,Robert Charles [Routledge 1956], p.285
A Reaction
If we define belief as 'commitment to truth', Russell's last six words become redundant. "Propositions are the contents of beliefs", it being beliefs which are candidates for truth, not propositions. (Russell agrees, on p.308!)
Related Idea
Idea 20311 An idea involves affirmation or negation [Spinoza]
| 5778 | If we object to all data which is 'introspective' we will cease to believe in toothaches [Russell] |
| 5779 | There are distinct sets of psychological and physical causal laws [Russell] |
| 5781 | Our important beliefs all, if put into words, take the form of propositions [Russell] |
| 5782 | A proposition expressed in words is a 'word-proposition', and one of images an 'image-proposition' [Russell] |
| 5780 | The three questions about belief are its contents, its success, and its character [Russell] |
| 5783 | Propositions of existence, generalities, disjunctions and hypotheticals make correspondence tricky [Russell] |
| 5784 | In its primary and formal sense, 'true' applies to propositions, not beliefs [Russell] |
| 5777 | The truth or falsehood of a belief depends upon a fact to which the belief 'refers' [Russell] |
| 5776 | A proposition is what we believe when we believe truly or falsely [Russell] |