Facts
91
Russell and Wittgenstein believed that the structure of language mirrors the
structure of the external universe independently of mind. This would not be
true, of course, for a natural language such as English, but it is possible to
design formal languages, constructed so they refer with absolute precision to
objects in a limited domain.
Bertrand Russell refers to a stringently rigorous language of this kind as
a logically perfect language. W. O. Quine, the great American philosopher of
language, has the very same idea in mind when he speaks of a regimented
language. Quine asserted that the way in which such a language is organized
is identical to “the ultimate structure of reality”. Russell says, “In a logically
perfect language the words in a proposition would correspond one by one
with the components of the corresponding fact... A language of that sort...will
show at a glance the logical structure of the fact.”
For example, a motorcycle repair manual could be written in a regimented
language. Each individual gear and separate component will have a specific
name. There will also be words to specify exactly how two components fit
together. The rules of sentence-formation will then be analogs of the way
mechanical parts are assembled.
The idea underlying a regimented language is that by assigning a noun
to each separate material unit, and a specific word for every possible way in
which material units are physically linked, we achieve a perfect correspondence
between sentences and material structures. In this way, since uncertainty is eliminated by the absolute explicitness of the language, and therefore interpretation
is unnecessary, a regimented language is able to describe things in a completely
objective way that is not necessarily linked to a human intelligence.
Regimented languages are useful not merely to describe physical systems,
but may be applied in any domain. Designers of formal languages begin by
taking inventory of all the individual objects that are relevant in a particular
context. As explained above, the rules of sentence-formation must then mimic
the way complex entities are constructed out of simpler ones in the field of
application. The use of a regimented language makes the world perspicuous
because objects and events can be fully described in propositional form. Most
importantly, perhaps, meaning is not a function of context, and does not
depend on background information or knowledge. It appears that sentences of
a regimented language are able to convey the full content of every fact with no
residue. They seem to be something objective and independent of any human
perspective.
However, this is not really true: The reason is that every language—whether
formal or not—is built on a specific segmentation of reality into separate objects
and relationships between objects. Thus, every language exposes a particular
91
Russell and Wittgenstein believed that the structure of language mirrors the
structure of the external universe independently of mind. This would not be
true, of course, for a natural language such as English, but it is possible to
design formal languages, constructed so they refer with absolute precision to
objects in a limited domain.
Bertrand Russell refers to a stringently rigorous language of this kind as
a logically perfect language. W. O. Quine, the great American philosopher of
language, has the very same idea in mind when he speaks of a regimented
language. Quine asserted that the way in which such a language is organized
is identical to “the ultimate structure of reality”. Russell says, “In a logically
perfect language the words in a proposition would correspond one by one
with the components of the corresponding fact... A language of that sort...will
show at a glance the logical structure of the fact.”
For example, a motorcycle repair manual could be written in a regimented
language. Each individual gear and separate component will have a specific
name. There will also be words to specify exactly how two components fit
together. The rules of sentence-formation will then be analogs of the way
mechanical parts are assembled.
The idea underlying a regimented language is that by assigning a noun
to each separate material unit, and a specific word for every possible way in
which material units are physically linked, we achieve a perfect correspondence
between sentences and material structures. In this way, since uncertainty is eliminated by the absolute explicitness of the language, and therefore interpretation
is unnecessary, a regimented language is able to describe things in a completely
objective way that is not necessarily linked to a human intelligence.
Regimented languages are useful not merely to describe physical systems,
but may be applied in any domain. Designers of formal languages begin by
taking inventory of all the individual objects that are relevant in a particular
context. As explained above, the rules of sentence-formation must then mimic
the way complex entities are constructed out of simpler ones in the field of
application. The use of a regimented language makes the world perspicuous
because objects and events can be fully described in propositional form. Most
importantly, perhaps, meaning is not a function of context, and does not
depend on background information or knowledge. It appears that sentences of
a regimented language are able to convey the full content of every fact with no
residue. They seem to be something objective and independent of any human
perspective.
However, this is not really true: The reason is that every language—whether
formal or not—is built on a specific segmentation of reality into separate objects
and relationships between objects. Thus, every language exposes a particular