Relations and Objects: A New Analogy Between The Philosophy of Logical Atomism and Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Abstract

We compare the theory of relations and predicates in The Philosophy of Logical
Atomism by Bertrand Russell with the theory of objects and names in the Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus. The comparison is developed on three levels: ontology, syntax
and semantics. We then draw some conclusions from the resulting similarities. On the
Russellian side, the contextual pertinence of this surprising fragment of Tractarian
ontosemantics is questioned. On the Wittgensteinian side, we need to make sense of
these surprising similarities. Those readers who do not identify Tractarian objects
with particulars seem to be in a better position, at least from this limited point of
view.