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Single Idea 6110

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 1. Overview of Logic ]

Full Idea

It is doubtful whether the subject-predicate logic, with the substance-attribute metaphysic, would have been invented by people speaking a non-Aryan language.

Clarification

Most European languages (e.g. Greek) are 'Aryan'

Gist of Idea

Subject-predicate logic (and substance-attribute metaphysics) arise from Aryan languages

Source

Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.151)

Book Ref

Russell,Bertrand: 'Russell's Logical Atomism', ed/tr. Pears,David [Fontana 1972], p.151

A Reaction

This is not far off the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (e.g. Idea 3917), which Russell would never accept. I presume that Russell would see true logic as running deeper, and the 'Aryan' approach as just one possible way to describe it.

Related Idea

Idea 3917 Scientific thought is essentially a specialised part of Indo-European languages [Whorf]

The 34 ideas with the same theme [broad views about different systems of logic]:

18794 Logic has precise boundaries, and is the formal rules for all thinking [Kant]
7728 Frege has a judgement stroke (vertical, asserting or judging) and a content stroke (horizontal, expressing) [Frege, by Weiner]
16881 The laws of logic are boundless, so we want the few whose power contains the others [Frege]
6110 Subject-predicate logic (and substance-attribute metaphysics) arise from Aryan languages [Russell]
9358 There are several logics, none of which will ever derive falsehoods from truth [Lewis,CI]
18724 In logic nothing is hidden [Wittgenstein]
16908 We can dispense with self-evidence, if language itself prevents logical mistakes [Jeshion on Wittgenstein]
23502 Logic fills the world, to its limits [Wittgenstein]
23504 Logic concerns everything that is subject to law; the rest is accident [Wittgenstein]
13979 Logic studies consequence, compatibility, contradiction, corroboration, necessitation, grounding.... [Ryle]
13010 In order to select the logic justified by experience, we would need to use a lot of logic [Boghossian on Quine]
9020 My logical grammar has sentences by predication, then negation, conjunction, and existential quantification [Quine]
12666 We can base logic on acceptability, and abandon the Fregean account by truth-preservation [Ellis]
11066 Deduction is justified by the semantics of its metalanguage [Dummett, by Hanna]
9722 Inference not from content, but from the fact that it was said, is 'conversational implicature' [Enderton]
3809 If complex logic requires rules, then so does basic logic [Searle]
12595 We have a theory of logic (implication and inconsistency), but not of inference or reasoning [Harman]
3093 Any two states are logically linked, by being entailed by their conjunction [Harman]
10766 Logic is either for demonstration, or for characterizing structures [Tharp]
12342 Topos theory explains the plurality of possible logics [Badiou]
10282 Logic is the study of sound argument, or of certain artificial languages (or applying the latter to the former) [Hodges,W]
13831 Logic is based on transitions between sentences [Prawitz]
9457 The two main views in philosophy of logic are extensionalism and intensionalism [Jacquette]
7681 Logic describes inferences between sentences expressing possible properties of objects [Jacquette]
8091 Situation theory is logic that takes account of context [Devlin]
13627 There is no 'correct' logic for natural languages [Shapiro]
13642 Logic is the ideal for learning new propositions on the basis of others [Shapiro]
14980 There is a real issue over what is the 'correct' logic [Sider]
15000 'It is raining' and 'it is not raining' can't be legislated, so we can't legislate 'p or ¬p' [Sider]
13235 Logic studies consequence; logical truths are consequences of everything, or nothing [Beall/Restall]
13238 Syllogisms are only logic when they use variables, and not concrete terms [Beall/Restall]
17741 To determine the patterns in logic, one must identify its 'building blocks' [Walicki]
11211 If a sound conclusion comes from two errors that cancel out, the path of the argument must matter [Rumfitt]
18815 Logic is higher-order laws which can expand the range of any sort of deduction [Rumfitt]