ONT Re: Epicyclic Recidivicious Recognizance Of Russell
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| We come now to the last problem which has to be treated in this chapter, namely:
| What is the logical structure of the fact which consists in a given subject
| understanding a given proposition? The structure of an understanding
| varies according to the proposition understood. At present, we are
| only concerned with the understanding of atomic propositions;
| the understanding of molecular propositions will be dealt
| with in Part III. Let us again take the proposition
| "A and B are similar". It is plain, to begin with,
| that the 'complex' "A and B being similar", even
| if it exists, does not enter in, for if it did,
| we could not understand false propositions,
| because in their case there is no such complex.
| It is plain, also, from what has been said, that
| we cannot understand the proposition unless we are
| acquainted with A and B and similarity and the form
| "something and something have some relation". Apart
| from these four objects, there does not appear, so
| far as we can see, to be any object with which we
| need be acquainted in order to understand the
| proposition. It seems to follow that these
| four objects, and these only, must be united
| with the subject in one complex when the subject
| understands the proposition. It cannot be any complex
| composed of them that enters in, since they need not form
| any complex, and if they do, we need not be acquainted with it.
| But they themselves must all enter in, since if they did not, it
| would be at least theoretically possible to understand the proposition
| without being acquainted with them. In this argument, I appeal to the
| principle that, when we understand, those objects with which we must be
| acquainted when we understand, and those only, are object-constituents
| (i.e. constituents other than understanding itself and the subject)
| of the understanding-complex.
|
| BR, TOK 1913, pages 116-117.
|
| Bertrand Russell,
|'Theory of Knowledge: The 1913 Manuscript',
| Edited by Elizabeth Ramsden Eames, in collaboration with Kenneth Blackwell,
| First published in 1984 by George Allen & Unwin; Routledge, London, UK, 1992.
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