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Single Idea 7528

[from 'My Philosophical Development' by Bertrand Russell, in 5. Theory of Logic / E. Structures of Logic / 1. Logical Form ]

Full Idea

The metaphysics of Leibniz was explicitly based upon the doctrine that every proposition attributes a predicate to a subject and (what seemed to him almost the same thing) that every fact consists of a substance having a property.

Clarification

In 'the sky is blue', 'the sky' is the subject, and 'is blue' is the predicate

Gist of Idea

Leibniz bases everything on subject/predicate and substance/property propositions

Source

Bertrand Russell (My Philosophical Development [1959], Ch.5)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'My Philosophical Development' [Routledge 1993], p.48


A Reaction

I think it is realised now that although predicates tend to attribute properties to things, they are far from being the same thing. See Idea 4587, for example. Russell gives us an interesting foot in the door of Leibniz's complex system.

Related Idea

Idea 4587 From the property predicates P and Q, we can get 'P or Q', but it doesn't have to designate another property [Heil]