Abstract

Bertrand russell's "theory of knowledge" (1913) marks a new stage of development in his theory of the proposition which deeply affected wittgenstein's emerging views on the matter: both russell and wittgenstein maintained that "we understand a proposition when we understand its constituents and form". Later in "the tractatus", Wittgenstein holds that a proposition is understood by any one who understands its constituents, (4.024). The reasons for this movement from "'constituents and form'" to "'constituents'" only, In wittgenstein's earliest writings, And for russell's own position, Are elucidated in detail