A clarification of the role of the existential quantifier in russell's controversial 14.02. how should the existential quantifier be read? the starting point of the argument is one of the issues covered by woods. a look at russell's methods of deriving propositions from functions is a necessary preliminary. the first method involves substituting constants for variables, but the second involves the use of quantifiers. for russell's analysis of definite descriptions, it is preferable to read the existential quantifier as 'is sometimes (...) true' because this reveals the way in which 14.02 was intended to be a definition of 'exists' and also makes explicit russell's crucial use of functions in dispensing with definite descriptions as subjects of propositions. (shrink)