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7548 | Classes, grouped by a convenient property, are logical constructions [Russell] |
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. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (The Ultimate Constituents of Matter [1915], 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. |