more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 6093

[catalogued under 19. Language / F. Communication / 4. Private Language]

Full Idea

A logically perfect language, if it could be constructed, would be, as regards its vocabulary, very largely private to one speaker; that is, all the names in it would be private to that speaker and could not enter into the language of another speaker.

Gist of Idea

The names in a logically perfect language would be private, and could not be shared

Source

Bertrand Russell (The Philosophy of Logical Atomism [1918], §II)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'Russell's Logical Atomism', ed/tr. Pears,David [Fontana 1972], p.53


A Reaction

Wittgenstein obviously thought there was something not quite right about this… See Idea 4147, for example. I presume Russell's thought is that you would have no means of explaining the 'meanings' of the names in the language.

Related Idea

Idea 4147 If we only named pain by our own case, it would be like naming beetles by looking in a private box [Wittgenstein]