Principia Mathematica

In fact the very abstract simplicity of the ideas ofthis work defeats language. Language ca represent complex ideas more easily. The proposition "a whale is big" represents language at its best, giving terse expression to a complicated fact; while the true analysis of "one is a number" leads, in language, to an intolerable prolixity. Accordingly terseness is gained b using a symbolism especially designed to represent the ideas and processes of deduction which occur in this work.