Abstract

In this paper I examine the conflicting ways in which Bertrand Russell and Hegel understand indexical expressions. For this purpose, I consider some books and articles written by Russell in different moments of his life, and the first chapter of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, book published in 1807. I try to show that Russell, even being a Hegel scholar, does not respond to his proposal about indexical expressions, but takes a position that keeps him trapped in a kind of self-deception of sense-certainty. At the end, I suggest that the differences between Hegel and Russell in relation to indexical expressions can be explained by the fact that the ontologies adopted by both authors exclude each other.