CHAPTER XXIII

DENOTING

A concept _denotes_ when, if it occurs in a proposition, the proposition

is not about the concept, but _about_ a term connected in a certain

peculiar way with the concept. Some people often assert that man is

mortal, and yet we never see announced in _The Times_ that Man died on a

certain day at his villa residence "Camelot" at Upper Tooting,[63] nor

do we hear that Procrastination was again the butt of Mr. Plowden's

jokes at Marylebone Police Court last week.

That two phrases may have different _meanings_ and the same _denotation_

was discovered by Alice and Frege. Alice[64] observed that the road

which led to Tweedledum's house was that which led to the house of

Tweedledee; and Frege pointed out that the phrases "the house to which

the road that leads to Tweedledum's house leads" and "the house to which

the road that leads to Tweedledee's house leads" have different _Sinn_,

but the same _Bedeutung_.

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Cf. _P. M._, pp. 53-4.

[64] See Appendix M.

The philosophy of Mr. B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll · 第 23 / 43 章