Single Idea 23453

[catalogued under 19. Language / D. Propositions / 3. Concrete Propositions]

Full Idea

A 'proposition', in the sense in which a proposition is supposed to be the object of a judgement, is a false abstraction, because a judgement has several objects, not one.

Gist of Idea

Propositions as objects of judgement don't exist, because we judge several objects, not one

Source

B Russell/AN Whitehead (Principia Mathematica [1913], p.44), quoted by Michael Morris - Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Tractatus 2E

Book Reference

Morris,Michael: 'Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Tractatus' [Routledge 2008], p.84


A Reaction

This is the rejection of the 'Russellian' theory of propositions, in favour of his multiple-relations theory of judgement. But why don't the related objects add up to a proposition about a state of affairs?