Home / Quotes / Quote by Bertrand Russell

Quote by Bertrand Russell

“In a logically perfect language, there will be one word and no more for every simple object, and everything that is not simple will be expressed by a combination of words, by a combination derived, of course, from the words for the simple things that enter in, one word for each simple component.”

Quote by Bertrand Russell

Book:The Philosophy of Logical Atomism

Work

The Philosophy of Logical Atomism

This book delves into the foundational ideas of logical atomism, examining the nature of reality, the structure of the universe, and the principles of logical reasoning. It is a comprehensive study of the philosophical framework that influenced both the authors' own work and the development of analytic philosophy. more

Author

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, mathematician, and logician born on May 18, 1872, and died on February 2, 1970. He is known for his contributions to logic and mathematics, particularly in the fields of mathematical logic and philosophical analysis. His works spanned a wide range of subjects, including ethics, political philosophy, history, and literary criticism. more

You May Also Like

“We shall say that we have acquaintance with anything of which we are directly aware, without the intermediary of any process of inference of any knowledge of truths.”

Language Process Acquaintance Inference

Book:The Problems of Philosophy

Source: The Problems of Philosophy

“In astronomy, the law of gravitation is plainly better worth knowing than the position of a particular planet on a particular night, or even on every night throughout a year. There are in the law a splendour and simplicity and sense of mastery which illuminate a mass of otherwise uninteresting details. But in history the matter is far otherwise. Historical facts, many of them, have an intrinsic value, a profound interest on their own account, which makes them worthy of study, quite apart from any possibility of linking them together by means of causal laws.”

“The process of philosophizing, to my mind, consists mainly in passing from those obvious, vague, ambiguous things, that we feel quite sure of, to something precise, clear, definite, which by reflection and analysis we find is involved in the vague thing that we start from, and is, so to speak, the real truth of which that vague thing is a sort of shadow.”

Feels Mind Real Speak Process Clear Involved Reflection Shadow Philosophical Obvious Passing Passings Analysis Definite Vague Precise Ambiguous Real Truth

Book:Russell's Logical atomism

Source: Russell's Logical atomism

“Whatever we know without inference is mental.”

Knows Knowledge Inference

Book:Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Value

Source: Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Value

“Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then suchand such another proposition is true of that thing.... Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.”

Ifs Knows May Talking Knowledge Subjects Effects Pure Mathematics Defined Propositions Assertion True Knowledge

Author:Bertrand Russell

“The question of "unreality"is a very important one. Misled by grammar, the great majority of those logicians who have dealt with this question have dealt with it on mistaken lines. They have regarded grammatical form as a surer guide in analysis than, in fact, it is. And they have not known what differences in grammatical form are important.”

Important Facts Reality Form Differences Lines Known Logic Majority Guides Analysis Realism Mistaken Grammar Misled Unreality

Book:Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy

Source: Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy

“The fundamental principle in the analysis of propositions containing descriptions is this: Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted.”

Principles Fundamentals Analysis Description Propositions Acquaintance Constituents Containing Fundamental Principles

Book:The Problems of Philosophy

Source: The Problems of Philosophy

“Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. … Aristotle, so far as I know, was the first man to proclaim explicitly that man is a rational animal. His reason for this view was … that some people can do sums. … It is in virtue of the intellect that man is a rational animal. The intellect is shown in various ways, but most emphatically by mastery of arithmetic. The Greek system of numerals was very bad, so that the multiplication table was quite difficult, and complicated calculations could only be made by very clever people.”

“Calculating machines do sums better than even the cleverest people… As arithmetic has grown easier, it has come to be less respected.”

People Easy Easier Respect Machines Arithmetic Calculating

Book:The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

Source: The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

“John Locke invented common sense, and only Englishmen have had it ever since!”

Common Common Sense Englishmen

Author:Bertrand Russell