back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 8469

[from 'Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy' by Bertrand Russell, in 4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 7. Natural Sets ]

Full Idea

Russell's solution (in the theory of types) consists of restricting the principle that every predicate has a set as its extension so that only meaningful predicates have sets as their extensions.

Gist of Idea

Russell's proposal was that only meaningful predicates have sets as their extensions

Source

report of Bertrand Russell (Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy [1919]) by Alex Orenstein - W.V. Quine Ch.3

Book Reference

Orenstein,Alex: 'W.V. Quine' [Princeton 2002], p.58


A Reaction

There might be a chicken-and-egg problem here. How do you decide the members of a set (apart from ostensively) without deciding the predicate(s) that combine them?