The Nature of Propositions

Abstract

Mr. Russell in The Analysis of Mind divides propositions into two main kinds, word propositions and image propositions. I want it to be clear that I do not use propositions in this sense; what Mr. Russell calls word propositions I shall call sentences, reserving proposition for those things, if any, which sentences stand for. This paper is divided into four parts; first I shall examine the view that the phrases which express propositions are incomplete symbols, which is put forward in those words in the Introduction to Principia Mathematica, and is clearly also held by Dr. McTaggart in The Nature of Existence, although he expressed it differently. I shall give reasons for rejecting this view and in the second part of the paper put forward the alternative in which I believe. Then I shall discuss the relations between propositions and facts, and lastly truth.