224 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC 



denotation, in such phrases as &quot; the author of Waverley.&quot; 

 The meaning will be a certain complex, consisting (at 

 least) of authorship and Waverley (with some relation/; 

 denotation will be Scott./ Similarly &quot;featherless 

 bipeds &quot; will have a complex meajiing, containing as 

 constituents the presence of two feet and the absence of 

 feathers,^) while its denotation will be the class of men. 

 Thus when we say &quot; Scott is the author of Waverley &quot; or 

 &quot; men are the same as featherless bipeds,&quot; we are assert 

 ing an identity of denotation, and this assertion is wortr 

 making because of the diversity, of meaning. 1 I believe 

 that the duality of meaning and denotation, though 

 capable of a true interpretation, is misleading if taken as 

 fundamental. The denotation, I believe, is not a con 

 stituent of the proposition, except in the case of proper 

 names, i.e. of words which do not assign a property to 

 an object, but merely and solely name it. And I should 

 hold further that, in this sense, there are only two words. 

 which ^re strictly proper names of particulars, namely, 



One reason for not believing the denotation to be a con 

 stituent of the proposition is that we may know the pro 

 position even when we are not acquainted with the 

 denotation. The proposition &quot;the author of Waverley 

 is a novelist &quot; was known to people who did not know 

 that &quot; the author of Waverley &quot; denoted Scott. This 

 reason has been already sufficiently emphasised. 



A second reason is that propositions concerning &quot; the 

 so-and-so &quot; are possible even^vhen &quot;the so-and-so &quot; has 

 no denotation. Take, e.g. [ the golden mountain doei 

 not exist &quot;/orr the round square is self-contradictory J3 



1 This view has been recently advocated by Miss E. E. C. Jones. 

 &quot; A New Law of Thought and its Implications,&quot; Mind, January, 1911, 

 I should now exclude &quot; I &quot; from proper names in the strict sense. 

 and retain only &quot;this&quot; 1017]. 



