Why did modern logicians seek an ideal logical language?

Modern logicians sought an ideal logical language to overcome the inherent limitations of natural languages, which are often vague, misleading, and contradictory. By creating a precise, unambiguous system modeled on symbolic logic, logicians aimed to establish a clear structure that could accurately represent the "picture of reality" and provide a rigorous criterion for determining the meaning or meaninglessness of statements about the world.1

This pursuit was driven by several key motivations:

• Precision and Clarity: Unlike natural language, where terms like "is" can be ambiguous—covering existence, identity, predication, or subsumption—an ideal language assigns distinct expressions to each sense, ensuring logical rigor.2
• Universal Communication: Influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s concept of a lingua characteristica universalis, many logicians, including Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell, viewed logic as a universal medium for expressing ideal thought.324
• Systematic Reasoning: Beyond mere communication, logicians sought to improve human reasoning by developing methods that could accelerate thought or even be performed mechanically, effectively turning logic into a calculus of reason (calculus ratiocinator).534

Ultimately, this quest reflected a shift toward viewing logic as a formal system where the structure of language and the validity of inference are explicitly defined.62