THE ALGEBRA OF LOGICAL ATOMISM

Abstract Central to certain versions of logical atomism are claims to the effect that every proposition is a truth-functional combination of elementary propositions. Assuming that propositions form a Boolean algebra, we consider a number of natural formal regimentations of informal claims in this vicinity, and show that they are equivalent. For a number of reasons, such as the need to accommodate quantifiers, logical atomists might consider only complete Boolean algebras, and take into account infinite truth-functional combinations. We show that in such a variant setting, some of the regimentations come apart, and explore how they relate to each other. We also discuss how they relate to the claim that propositions form a double powerset algebra, which has been proposed by a number of authors as a way of capturing the central logical atomist idea.