Ray Monk Symbolism Analysis

Bertrand Russell and The Origin of Analytical philosophy, Ray Monk & Anthony Palmer (ed), Thommes Press: England, 1996, pp.201.

By Michael Wiame

In the twentieth century many characterize the intellectual origins of and found to be Russell and Moore however later scholars like M Dummett refuted that Russell was relegated to the sideline of 20th Century philosophical development not by unearthing the undiscovered evidence but by the invocation of the reliable witness, a zeitgeist (spirit of the time or age) (p.viii). the reason why Russell is placed at the periphery of analytical development is the revaluation of role Gottlob Frege plays in the development. Ray Monk contribution On Denoting, points precisely that Frege’s Foundation of Arithmetic

(Russell, The philosophy of Logical Atomism,1985,p.45) Logic shows essential symbols but the as the theory of symbolism is basically psychological. It is apparent that the nature of logic cannot be fully understood outside of psychology. Therefore in the 1900s Russell starts to formulate psychological theory of proposition. “Russell reaffirm his commitment to psychology and epistemological approach to language.”(p.10) Russell thinks of the logical positivist for the linguistic bias. When Russell comes to define propositions he does so in psychological terms. He said, “it is necessary to distinguish proposition from sentences but proposition need not be indefinable.”(p.10) they can be defined as psychological occurrence like certain images and expectations. This psychological is made clear by the fact that propositions can be false. Analytic philosophy is systematic and has a linguistic turn. The philosophical characteristic is that what one thinks is philosophy is and what it can achieve. Russell adapted from Moors saying that “to understands a complex it to analyze it, to break it to the simple that composes it

In the 20th century philosophical writing, Russell was the man thought of as the very ideal in the scientific method in philosophy. He did the best to repudiate any such allegiance.(p.19). Russell wrote, “Hope to find a solution to the vex question of the unity of the proposition through the work of an Austrian student of mine.”(p.19). The value of the notes he was preparing was of illumination of the value of scientific methodology. In “On Denoting” Russell put his theory of definitive “description as the preferred alternative to other two theories.” (p.23). The two theories are, Meinong’s theories of object according to which every description denotes an object. “Any sentence in which definite description occurs in subject position is a sentence about this object(p.22) . the other is o Frege’s theory of sense and references where some descriptions have both Frege’s sense. Russell calls Meaning for Sense and reference as denoted object. (p.23) . Russell view was that the theory of description was intended for ontological device denoting in the Principles of Mathematics was somewhat closer to Meinong’s theory of object. Russell’s theory of denoting was closer to that of Frege’s . Russell’s ontology was