Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Rescher,N/Oppenheim,P, Ori Simchen and Johann Gottfried Herder

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9 ideas

1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis

20947	Thoughts are learnt through words, so language shows the limits and shape of our knowledge [Herder]
	Full Idea: If it is true that we cannot think without thoughts, and that we learn to think through words: then language gives the whole of human knowledge its limits and outline.
	From: Johann Gottfried Herder (On Recent German Literature. Fragments [1767], p.373), quoted by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy
	A reaction: Deomonstrating that Frege's famous 1884 'linguistic turn', immortalised by Dummett, was actually the continuation of a long focus on language in German philosophy. Non-verbal animals very obviously think.

4. Formal Logic / D. Modal Logic ML / 7. Barcan Formula

16186	The Barcan Formulas express how to combine modal operators with classical quantifiers [Simchen]
	Full Idea: The Barcan Formula and its converse gives expression to the most straightforward way of combining modal operators with classical quantification.
	From: Ori Simchen (The Barcan Formula and Metaphysics [2013], §1)

16187	The Barcan Formulas are orthodox, but clash with the attractive Actualist view [Simchen]
	Full Idea: The Barcan Formulas are a threat to 'actualism' in modal metaphysics, which seems regrettable since the Formulas are validated by standard modal logics, but clash with the plausible and attractive actualist view (that there are no merely possible things).
	From: Ori Simchen (The Barcan Formula and Metaphysics [2013], §1)
	A reaction: He notes that the Barcan Formulas 'appear to require quantification over possibilia'. So are you prepared to accept the 'possible elephant in your kitchen'? Conceptually yes, but actually no, I would have thought. So possibilia are conceptual.

16190	BF implies that if W possibly had a child, then something is possibly W's child [Simchen]
	Full Idea: In accordance with the Barcan Formula we assume that if it is possible that Wittgenstein should have had a child, then something or other is possibly Wittgentein's child.
	From: Ori Simchen (The Barcan Formula and Metaphysics [2013], §5)
	A reaction: Put like this it sounds unpersuasive. What is the something or other? Someone else's child? A dustbin? A bare particular? Wittgenstein's child? If it was the last one, how could it be Wittgenstein's child while only possibly being that thing?

9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 8. Parts of Objects / c. Wholes from parts

12887	A whole must have one characteristic, an internal relation, and a structure [Rescher/Oppenheim]
	Full Idea: A whole must possess an attribute peculiar to and characteristic of it as a whole; there must be a characteristic relation of dependence between the parts; and the whole must have some structure which gives it characteristics.
	From: Rescher,N/Oppenheim,P (Logical Analysis of Gestalt Concepts [1955], p.90), quoted by Peter Simons - Parts 9.2
	A reaction: Simons says these are basically sensible conditions, and tries to fill them out. They seem a pretty good start, and I must resist the temptation to rush to borderline cases.

10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 1. Possible Worlds / d. Possible worlds actualism

16188	Serious Actualism says there are no facts at all about something which doesn't exist [Simchen]
	Full Idea: Serious Actualism is the view that in possible circumstances in which something does not exist there are no facts about it of any kind, including its very non-existence
	From: Ori Simchen (The Barcan Formula and Metaphysics [2013], §1 n4)
	A reaction: He suggests that the Converse Barcan Formula implies this view. It sounds comparable to the view of Presentism about time, that no future or past truthmakers exist right now. If a new square table were to exist, it would have four corners.

19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 6. Meaning as Use

20949	Study the use of words, not their origins [Herder]
	Full Idea: Not how an expression can be etymologically derived and determined analytically, but how it is used is the question. Origin and use are often very different.
	From: Johann Gottfried Herder (works [1784], p.153), quoted by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy 2 'Herder'
	A reaction: This doesn't quite say that meaning is use, and is basically an attack on the Etymological Fallacy (that origin gives meaning), but it is a strikingly modern view of language.

22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value

7669	We cannot attain all the ideals of every culture, so there cannot be a perfect life [Herder, by Berlin]
	Full Idea: For Herder, we cannot attain to the highest ideals of all the centuries and all the places at once, and since we cannot do that, the whole notion of the perfect life collapses.
	From: report of Johann Gottfried Herder (works [1784]) by Isaiah Berlin - The Roots of Romanticism Ch.3
	A reaction: Herder seems to be the father of modern cultural relativism. The idea is hard to challenge, but the ideals of some cultures should be ignored, if they diminish rather than enhance the good life for all.

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 7. Communitarianism / a. Communitarianism

7668	Herder invented the idea of being rooted in (or cut off from) a home or a group [Herder, by Berlin]
	Full Idea: The whole notion of being at home, or being cut off from one's natural roots, the whole idea of roots, the whole idea of belonging to a group, a sect, a movement, was largely invented by Herder.
	From: report of Johann Gottfried Herder (works [1784], Ch.3) by Isaiah Berlin - The Roots of Romanticism
	A reaction: Hm. Broad generalisations are an awful temptation in the history of ideas. As a corrective to this, trying reading the two Anglo-Saxon poems 'The Wanderer' and 'The Seafarer'. Very Germanic, I suppose. Interesting, though. Leads to Hegel's politics.