more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 7548

[catalogued under 4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 8. Critique of Set Theory]

Full Idea

Classes or series of particulars, collected together on account of some property which makes it convenient to be able to speak of them as wholes, are what I call logical constructions or symbolic fictions.

Gist of Idea

Classes, grouped by a convenient property, are logical constructions

Source

Bertrand Russell (The Ultimate Constituents of Matter [1915], p.125)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'Mysticism and Logic' [Unwin 1989], p.125


A Reaction

When does a construction become 'logical' instead of arbitrary? What is it about a property that makes it 'convenient'? At this point Russell seems to have built his ontology on classes, and the edifice was crumbling, thanks to Wittgenstein.