Philosophy Concordance - online philosophical quotations

The proper answer to the question, "How many drops did you see?", is many, not that there was a number but you don't know how many.

Russell's notation assumes that for every general proposition there are names which can be given in answer to the question "Which ones?" (in contrast to, "What sort?").

Now in the case of human beings, where we use names, the question "Which men?" has meaning.

But to say there is a circle in the square may not allow the question "Which?" since we have no names "a", "b", etc. for circles.

To the question whether a meaning mightn't be given to "There is a thing which is a circle in the square" I would reply that one might mean by it that one out of a lot of shapes in the square was a circle.

To ask whether there is a hidden contradiction is to ask an ambiguous question.

The question whether such a seemingly atomic proposition as "It rains" is molecular, that it is, say, a logical product, is like asking whether there is a hidden contradiction when there is no method of answering the question.

We both in different ways pushed the question of examples aside.

Now there are all sorts of language-games suggested by the one in which colour words are taught: games of orders and commands, of question and answer, of questions and "Yes" and "No.

If the game consists in question and answer and the child responds, say, to the question "How many chairs?", by giving the number, again truth and falsity may not come in, though it might if the child were taught to reply "Six chairs agrees with reality".