Russell, logicism, and the choice of logical constants

Abstract

It is here argued that Russell’s Principles of Mathematics contains an intriguing idea about how to demarcate logical concepts from nonlogical ones. On this view, implication and generality emerge as the two fundamental logical concepts. Russell’s 1903 proposals for defining other logical concepts from these basic ones are examined and extended. Despite its attractiveness, the proposal is ultimately unsatisfactory because of problems about defining negation and existential quantification. © 1989 by the University of Notre Dame. All rights reserved.