Page:Russell, Whitehead - Principia Mathematica, vol. I, 1910.djvu/26

Chapter I.

Preliminary Explanations of Ideas and Notations.

The notation adopted in the present work is based upon that of Peano, and the following explanations are to some extent modelled on those which he prefixes to his Formulario Mathematico. His use of dots as brackets is adopted, and so are many of his symbols.

Variables. The idea of a variable, as it occurs in the present work, is more general than that which is explicitly used in ordinary mathematics. In ordinary mathematics, a variable generally stands for an undetermined number or quantity. In mathematical logic, any symbol whose meaning is not determinate is called a variable, and the various determinations of which its meaning is susceptible are called the values of the variable. The values may be any set of entities, propositions, functions, classes or relations, according to circumstances. If a statement is made about "Mr A and Mr B," "Mr A" and "Mr B" are variables whose values are confined to men. A variable may either have a conventionally-assigned range of values, or may (in the absence of any indication of the range of values) have as the range of its values all determinations which render the statement in which it occurs significant. Thus when a text-book of logic asserts that "$\scriptstyle {A}$ is $\scriptstyle {A}$," without any indication as to what $\scriptstyle {A}$ may be, what is meant is that any statement of the form "$\scriptstyle {A}$ is $\scriptstyle {A}$" is true. We may call a variable restricted when its values are confined to some only of those of which it is capable; otherwise, we shall call it unrestricted. Thus when an unrestricted variable occurs, it represents any object such that the statement concerned can be made significantly (i.e. either truly or falsely) concerning that object. For the purposes of logic, the unrestricted variable is more convenient than the restricted variable, and we shall always employ it. We shall find that the unrestricted variable is still subject to limitations imposed by the manner of its occurrence, i.e. things which can be said significantly concerning a proposition cannot be said significantly concerning a class or a relation, and so on. But the limitations to which the unrestricted variable is subject do not need to be explicitly indicated, since they are the limits of significance of the statement in which the variable occurs, and are therefore intrinsically determined by this statement. This will be more fully explained later^[1].

1. Cf. Chapter II of the Introduction.