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2 ideas
21576 | With asymmetrical relations (before/after) the reduction to properties is impossible [Russell] |
Full Idea: When we come to asymmetrical relations, such as before and after, greater and less etc., the attempt to reduce them to properties becomes obviously impossible. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (Our Knowledge of the External World [1914], 2) | |
A reaction: The traditional Aristotelian reduction to properties is attributed by Russell to logic based on subject-predicate. As an example he cites being greater than as depending on more than the mere magnitudes of the entities. Direction of the relation. |
21575 | When we attribute a common quality to a group, we can forget the quality and just talk of the group [Russell] |
Full Idea: When a group of objects have the similarity we are inclined to attribute to possession of a common quality, the membership of the group will serve all the purposes of the supposed common quality ...which need not be assumed to exist. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (Our Knowledge of the External World [1914], 2) | |
A reaction: This is the earliest account I have found of properties being treated as sets of objects. It more or less coincides with the invention of set theory. I am reminded of Idea 9208. What is the bazzing property? It's what those three things have in common. |