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Single Idea 6435
[filed under theme 19. Language / D. Propositions / 4. Mental Propositions
]
Full Idea
If you have just heard a loud clap of thunder, you believe what is expressed by 'there has just been a loud clap of thunder' even if no words come into your mind.
Gist of Idea
You can believe the meaning of a sentence without thinking of the words
Source
Bertrand Russell (My Philosophical Development [1959], Ch.13)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'My Philosophical Development' [Routledge 1993], p.114
A Reaction
This seems to me important, and accurate. We should not be too mesmerised by language. Animals have beliefs, and this is a nice example of an undeniable non-linguistic human belief.
The
23 ideas
from 'My Philosophical Development'
6420
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Only by analysing is progress possible in philosophy
[Russell]
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6419
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In 1899-1900 I adopted the philosophy of logical atomism
[Russell]
|
6426
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Intuitionism says propositions are only true or false if there is a method of showing it
[Russell]
|
7528
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Leibniz bases everything on subject/predicate and substance/property propositions
[Russell]
|
6423
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We tried to define all of pure maths using logical premisses and concepts
[Russell]
|
6425
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Formalism can't apply numbers to reality, so it is an evasion
[Russell]
|
6424
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Formalists say maths is merely conventional marks on paper, like the arbitrary rules of chess
[Russell]
|
6427
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Unverifiable propositions about the remote past are still either true or false
[Russell]
|
6431
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Empiricists seem unclear what they mean by 'experience'
[Russell]
|
6432
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Analysis gives new knowledge, without destroying what we already have
[Russell]
|
6430
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In epistemology we should emphasis the continuity between animal and human minds
[Russell]
|
6434
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Facts are everything, except simples; they are either relations or qualities
[Russell]
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6433
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Behaviourists struggle to explain memory and imagination, because they won't admit images
[Russell]
|
6435
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You can believe the meaning of a sentence without thinking of the words
[Russell]
|
6440
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Universals can't just be words, because words themselves are universals
[Russell]
|
6436
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I gradually replaced classes with properties, and they ended as a symbolic convenience
[Russell]
|
6438
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Complex things can be known, but not simple things
[Russell]
|
6437
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The theory of types makes 'Socrates and killing are two' illegitimate
[Russell]
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6439
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Names are meaningless unless there is an object which they designate
[Russell]
|
6442
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Truth belongs to beliefs, not to propositions and sentences
[Russell]
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6441
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Pragmatism judges by effects, but I judge truth by causes
[Russell]
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6443
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Surprise is a criterion of error
[Russell]
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6444
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True belief about the time is not knowledge if I luckily observe a stopped clock at the right moment
[Russell]
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