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Ideas for 'The Problem of Empty Names', 'Foundations of Geometry' and 'Hat-Tricks and Heaps'

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5. Theory of Logic / C. Ontology of Logic / 3. If-Thenism
Geometrical axioms imply the propositions, but the former may not be true [Russell]
     Full Idea: We must only assert of various geometries that the axioms imply the propositions, not that the axioms are true and therefore that the propositions are true.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Foundations of Geometry [1897], Intro vii), quoted by Alan Musgrave - Logicism Revisited §4
     A reaction: Clearly the truth of the axioms can remain a separate issue from whether they actually imply the theorems. The truth of the axioms might be as much a metaphysical as an empirical question. Musgrave sees this as the birth of if-thenism.