Abstract
Anyone familiar with Russell’s work on the multiple-relation theory of
judgment will at some point have puzzled over the map of the five-term
understanding complex at the end of Chapter 1, Part II of his Theory of
Knowledge (1913). Russell presents the map with the intention of clarifying
what goes on when a subject S understands the “proposition” that A
and B are similar. But the map raises more questions than it answers. In
this paper I present and develop some of the central issues that arise from
Russell’s map, and I offer an interpretation of it that reflects his evolving
views in the manuscript. I argue that multiple lines in the map are not
meant to represent many relations, but rather one comprehensive multiple
relation of understanding. And I argue that such a relation relates
in a complex way due to the distinctive nature of its relata.