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5 ideas
10968 | Russell gave up logical atomism because of negative, general and belief propositions [Russell, by Read] |
Full Idea: Russell preceded Wittgenstein in deciding that the reduction of all propositions to atomic propositions could not be achieved. The problem cases were negative propositions, general propositions, and belief propositions. | |
From: report of Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924]) by Stephen Read - Thinking About Logic Ch.1 |
6113 | To mean facts we assert them; to mean simples we name them [Russell] |
Full Idea: The way to mean a fact is to assert it; the way to mean a simple is to name it. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.156) | |
A reaction: Thus logical atomism is a linguistic programme, of reducing our language to a foundation of pure names. The recent thought of McDowell and others is aimed at undermining any possibility of a 'simple' in perception. The myth of 'The Given'. |
6114 | 'Simples' are not experienced, but are inferred at the limits of analysis [Russell] |
Full Idea: When I speak of 'simples' I am speaking of something not experienced as such, but known only inferentially as the limits of analysis. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.158) | |
A reaction: He claims that the simples are 'known', so he does not mean purely theoretical entities. They have something like the status of quarks in physics, whose existence is inferred from experience. |
21722 | Better to construct from what is known, than to infer what is unknown [Russell] |
Full Idea: Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.161), quoted by Bernard Linsky - Russell's Metaphysical Logic 7 | |
A reaction: In 1919 he said that the alternative, of 'postulating' new entities, has 'all the advantages of theft over honest toil' [IMP p.71]. This is Russell's commitment to 'constructing' everything, even his concept of matter. Arithmetic as PA is postulation. |
6111 | As propositions can be put in subject-predicate form, we wrongly infer that facts have substance-quality form [Russell] |
Full Idea: Since any proposition can be put into a form with a subject and a predicate, united by a copula, it is natural to infer that every fact consists in the possession of a quality by a substance, which seems to me a mistake. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.152) | |
A reaction: This disagrees with McGinn on facts (Idea 6075). I approve of this warning from Russell, which is a recognition that we can't just infer our metaphysics from our language. I think of this as the 'Frege Fallacy', which ensnared Quine and others. |