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Single Idea 6438

[filed under theme 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / d. Logical atoms ]

Full Idea

I have come to think that, although many things can be known to be complex, nothing can be known to be simple.

Gist of Idea

Complex things can be known, but not simple things

Source

Bertrand Russell (My Philosophical Development [1959], Ch.14)

Book Ref

Russell,Bertrand: 'My Philosophical Development' [Routledge 1993], p.123

A Reaction

This appears to be a rejection of his logical atomism. It goes with a general rebellion against foundationalist epistemology, because the empiricists foundations (e.g. Hume's impressions) seem devoid of all content.

The 24 ideas with the same theme [reality built up from the smallest components of logic]:

12502 Comparisons boil down to simple elements of sensation or reflection [Locke]
21684 Atomic facts may be inferrable from others, but never from non-atomic facts [Russell]
10968 Russell gave up logical atomism because of negative, general and belief propositions [Russell, by Read]
6113 To mean facts we assert them; to mean simples we name them [Russell]
6114 'Simples' are not experienced, but are inferred at the limits of analysis [Russell]
21722 Better to construct from what is known, than to infer what is unknown [Russell]
6419 In 1899-1900 I adopted the philosophy of logical atomism [Russell]
6438 Complex things can be known, but not simple things [Russell]
21708 Russell's new logical atomist was of particulars, universals and facts (not platonic propositions) [Russell, by Linsky,B]
19051 Russell's atomic facts are actually compounds, and his true logical atoms are sense data [Russell, by Quine]
6089 Logical atomism aims at logical atoms as the last residue of analysis [Russell]
6100 Once you have enumerated all the atomic facts, there is a further fact that those are all the facts [Russell]
6105 Logical atoms aims to get down to ultimate simples, with their own unique reality [Russell]
21681 Given all true atomic propositions, in theory every other truth can thereby be deduced [Russell]
23472 The sense of propositions relies on the world's basic logical structure [Wittgenstein]
23463 Atomic facts correspond to true elementary propositions [Wittgenstein]
7090 The 'Tractatus' is an extreme example of 'Logical Atomism' [Wittgenstein, by Grayling]
23464 In atomic facts the objects hang together like chain links [Wittgenstein]
23471 The structure of an atomic fact is how its objects combine; this possibility is its form [Wittgenstein]
21682 If a proposition is elementary, no other elementary proposition contradicts it [Wittgenstein]
22319 Analysis must end in elementary propositions, which are combinations of names [Wittgenstein]
21683 Nothing can be inferred from an elementary proposition [Wittgenstein]
18385 Logical atomism builds on the simple properties, but are they the only possible properties? [Armstrong]
18475 Russell allows some complex facts, but Wittgenstein only allows atomic facts [MacBride]