Notes Dictated to G.E. Moore in Norway: Difference between revisions

That a proposition has a relation (in wide sense) to Reality, other than that of ''Bedeutung'', is shewn by the fact that you can understand it when you don't know the ''Bedeutung'', i.e. don't know whether it is true or false. Let us express this by saying "It has ''sense''" (''Sinn'').

The relation is as follows: Its ''simples'' have meaning = are names of simples; and its relations have a quite different relation to relations; and these two facts already establish a sort of correspondence between proposition which contains these and only these, and reality: i.e. if all the simples of a proposition are known, we already know that we {{small caps|can}} describe reality by saying that it ''behaves''<!--<ref>Presumably "verhält sich zu", i.e. "is related." [''Edd''.]</ref>--> in a certain way to the whole proposition. (This amounts to saying that we can ''compare'' reality with the proposition. In the case of two lines we can ''compare'' them in respect of their length without any convention: the comarison is automatic. But in our case the possibility of comparison depends upon the conventions by which we have given meanings to our simples (names and relations).)