27

21

Since the blackboard, or the sheet of assertion, represents
the universe of discourse, and since this universe
is a collection of individuals, it is natural seems reasonable that
any heavily decidedly marked point of the sheet, should stand
for a single individual; so that • should mean
“something exists.” We cannot make this • • to mean that
two things exist, since this would conflict with
our convention that graphs on different parts of the
sheet shall have each the same meaning as if each stood alone,
so that consequently the second point merely reiterates that something
exists.

You will ask me what use I propose to make
of this sign that something exists, a fact that
graphist and interpreter took for granted at the
outset. I will show you that the sign will be useful
as long as we agree that although different points
on the sheet may denote the same individual,
yet different individuals cannot be denoted
by the same point on the sheet.

21

Since the blackboard, or the sheet of assertion, represents
the universe of discourse, and since this universe
is a collection of individuals, it seems reasonable that
any decidedly marked point of the sheet, should stand
for a single individual; so that • should mean
“something exists.” We cannot make this • • to mean that
two things exist, since this would conflict with
our convention that graphs on different parts of the
sheet shall have each the same meaning as if each stood alone,
so that consequently the second point merely reiterates that something
exists.

You will ask me what use I propose to make
of this sign that something exists, a fact that
graphist and interpreter took for granted at the
outset. I will show you that the sign will be useful
as long as we agree that although different points
on the sheet may denote the same individual,
yet different individuals cannot be denoted
by the same point on the sheet.