ONT Re: Russell -- Philosophy Of Logical Atomism
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POLA. Note 5
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| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
|
| The first truism to which I wish to draw your attention -- and I hope
| you will agree with me that these things that I call truisms are so
| obvious that it is almost laughable to mention them -- is that the
| world contains 'facts', which are what they are whatever we may
| choose to think about them, and that there are also 'beliefs',
| which have reference to facts, and by reference to facts are
| either true or false.
|
| I will try first of all to give you a preliminary explanation of what
| I mean by a "fact". When I speak of a fact -- I do not propose to
| attempt an exact definition, but an explanation, so that you will
| know what I am talking about -- I mean the kind of thing that
| makes a proposition true or false.
|
| If I say "It is raining", what I say is true in a certain condition of
| weather and is false in other conditions of weather. The condition of
| weather that makes my statement true (or false as the case may be), is
| what I should call a "fact".
|
| If I say, "Socrates is dead", my statement will be true owing to a
| certain physiological occurrence which happened in Athens long ago.
|
| If I say, "Gravitation varies inversely as the square of the distance",
| my statement is rendered true by astronomical fact.
|
| If I say, "Two and two are four", it is arithmetical fact that makes
| my statement true.
|
| On the other hand, if I say, "Socrates is alive",
| or "Gravitation varies directly as the distance",
| or "Two and two are five", the very same facts
| which made my previous statements true show
| that these new statements are false.
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 40-41.
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
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