The General Form of the Proposition: The Unity of Language and the Generality of Logic in the Early Wittgenstein

Philosophical Investigations 32 (4):295-318 (2009)
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Abstract

The paper presents an interpretation of the thinking behind the early Wittgenstein's “general form of the proposition.” It argues that a central role is played by the assumption that all domains of discourse are governed by the same laws of logic. The interpretation is presented partly through a comparison with ideas presented recently by Michael Potter and Peter Sullivan; the paper argues that the above assumption explains more of the key characteristics of the “general form of the proposition” than Potter and Sullivan suppose, including, in particular, its claim that the bases from which all other propositions are derived must be elementary propositions.

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Denis McManus
University of Southampton

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References found in this work

Theory of knowledge: the 1913 manuscript.Bertrand Russell - 1984 - New York: Routledge. Edited by Elizabeth Ramsden Eames & Kenneth Blackwell.
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Wittgenstein.Robert J. Fogelin - 1978 - Mind 87 (347):443-445.

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