logical atomism

Philosophical theory that seeks to analyse thought and discourse in terms of indivisible components, or atomic propositions, like ‘Jane is clever’, ‘Tom loves Jane’. Atomic propositions are true if they correspond directly to atomic facts. One of many difficulties with the theory is how negative propositions (such as ‘Jane does not love Tom’) can correspond to atomic facts. The theory is associated with the 20th-century philosophers Bertrand Russell and, in his early period, Ludwig Wittgenstein.