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Full Idea
Russell proposed (in his theory of types) that sentences like 'The number two is fond of cream cheese' or 'Procrastination drinks quadruplicity' should be regarded as not false but meaningless.
Gist of Idea
The sentence 'procrastination drinks quadruplicity' is meaningless, rather than false
Source
report of Bertrand Russell (Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy [1919]) by Alex Orenstein - W.V. Quine Ch.3
Book Ref
Orenstein,Alex: 'W.V. Quine' [Princeton 2002], p.58
A Reaction
This seems to be the origin of the notion of a 'category mistake', which Ryle made famous. The problem is always poetry, where abstractions can be reified, or personified, and meaning can be squeezed out of almost anything.
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| 12491 | Asking whether man's will is free is liking asking if sleep is fast or virtue is square [Locke] |
| 8632 | You can't transfer external properties unchanged to apply to ideas [Frege] |
| 8468 | The sentence 'procrastination drinks quadruplicity' is meaningless, rather than false [Russell, by Orenstein] |
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