Theory, held briefly by Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) and Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) soon after World War I, that a proper description of reality would be in terms of atomic propositions, each containing a word standing for a quality or relation and one or more words standing for objects which had the quality or relation.
The objects must be basic and unanalyzable, whether they are objects of immediate experience (sense-data), as for Russell, or unspecified, as for Wittgenstein.
Atomic propositions are true or false according to whether they do or don’t correspond to and picture atomic facts. Molecular propositions are formed from them by negation and connectives (primarily ‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘if… then’) which are truth-functional; that is, given the truth or falsity of its atomic propositions, the truth or falsity of a molecular proposition could be inferred.
The theory then claims that this apparatus is adequate for describing reality completely. However, problems arose in dealing with negation, general propositions, propositions about belief and other notions that appear to violate the extensionality thesis, and there was some vacillation on whether any non-atomic facts could be admitted.
Source:
D F Pears, Bertrand Russell and the British Tradition in Philosophy (1967)
Table of Contents
- 1 Videos
- 2 Related Products
- 2.1 The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (Library of Living Philosophers)
- 2.2 The Philosophy of Logical Atomism: A Centenary Reappraisal (History of Analytic Philosophy)
- 2.3 Thought, Fact, and Reference: The Origins and Ontology of Logical Atomism
- 2.4 By Bertrand Russell The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (Open Court Classics) (New edition)
- 2.5 Russell's Logical Atomism
- 2.6 Wittgenstein's logical atomism (Oxford classical & philosophical monographs)
- 2.7 Realism and Logical Atomism: A Critique of Neo-Atomism from the Viewpoint of Classical Realism (Studies in the Humanities, No 14)
- 2.8 Russell's Logical atomism; (Fontana philosophy classics)
- 2.9 Russell's Logical Atomism and Its Influence on Analytic Philosophy
- 2.10 The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell. Volume 8: The Philosophy of Logical Atomism and Other Essays 1914-19
- logical relation theory of probability
- Atomism
- picture theory of meaning
- simple theory of types
- semantic atomism
Videos
The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (Library of Living Philosophers)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Bertrand Russell (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 192 Pages - 12/31/1998 (Publication Date) - Open Court (Publisher)
The Philosophy of Logical Atomism: A Centenary Reappraisal (History of Analytic Philosophy)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- English (Publication Language)
- 343 Pages - 12/11/2018 (Publication Date) - Palgrave Macmillan (Publisher)
Thought, Fact, and Reference: The Origins and Ontology of Logical Atomism
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Hardcover Book
- Hochberg, Herbert Irving (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 489 Pages - 12/01/1978 (Publication Date) - Univ of Minnesota Pr (Publisher)
By Bertrand Russell The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (Open Court Classics) (New edition)
- 04/03/1985 (Publication Date) - Open Court Publishing Company (Publisher)
Russell's Logical Atomism
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Hardcover Book
- Bostock, David (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 320 Pages - 06/18/2012 (Publication Date) - Oxford University Press (Publisher)
Wittgenstein's logical atomism (Oxford classical & philosophical monographs)
- Hardcover Book
- Griffin, James (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 166 Pages - 04/06/1964 (Publication Date) - Clarendon Press (Publisher)
Realism and Logical Atomism: A Critique of Neo-Atomism from the Viewpoint of Classical Realism (Studies in the Humanities, No 14)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Hardcover Book
- Peterson, John (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 128 Pages - 06/01/1976 (Publication Date) - Univ of Alabama Pr (Publisher)
Russell's Logical atomism; (Fontana philosophy classics)
- Russell, Bertrand (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 174 Pages - 04/06/1972 (Publication Date) - Fontana (Publisher)
Russell's Logical Atomism and Its Influence on Analytic Philosophy
- Anakwenze, Izuchukwu J. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 64 Pages - 11/27/2018 (Publication Date) - Scholars' Press (Publisher)
The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell. Volume 8: The Philosophy of Logical Atomism and Other Essays 1914-19
- Hardcover Book
- English (Publication Language)
- 464 Pages - 01/04/1986 (Publication Date) - George Allen & Unwin (Publisher)
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