Michael Polanyi - Sentence Quotes

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In a strict usage the same symbol should never represent the act of sincerely asserting something and the content of what is asserted. For the symbolic distinction between the two, Frege has introduced the 'signpost' symbol.... p is to signify the actual assertion of p, while the bare symbol p must henceforth be used only as part of a sentence.... It should be clear from the modality of a sentence whether it is a question, a command, an invective, a complaint or an allegation of fact.

Michael Polanyi

Whitehead and Russell... translate p imples q into the words 'it is asserted that p implies q'. But the phrase 'it is asserted' suggests an impersonal happening of assertions: 'it is asserted' as 'it is raining' or 'it happens'. The value of the assertion sign is lost if we allow ourselves to revert in our verbal translation of it to the muddle of a declaratory sentence which asserts itself or is impersonally asserted by nobody in particular.

Michael Polanyi

A declaratory sentence can be asserted, because it is an incomplete symbol, of indeterminate modality; while a question, a command, an invective, or any other sentence of fixed intention can no more be asserted than could my act of hewing wood or of drinking tea.

Michael Polanyi