Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Menedemus, Ofra Magidor and Shaughan Lavine

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85 ideas

2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / a. Category mistakes
People have dreams which involve category mistakes [Magidor]
Category mistakes are either syntactic, semantic, or pragmatic [Magidor]
2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / b. Category mistake as syntactic
Category mistakes seem to be universal across languages [Magidor]
Category mistakes as syntactic needs a huge number of fine-grained rules [Magidor]
Embedded (in 'he said that…') category mistakes show syntax isn't the problem [Magidor]
2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / c. Category mistake as semantic
Category mistakes are meaningful, because metaphors are meaningful category mistakes [Magidor]
The normal compositional view makes category mistakes meaningful [Magidor]
If a category mistake is synonymous across two languages, that implies it is meaningful [Magidor]
If a category mistake has unimaginable truth-conditions, then it seems to be meaningless [Magidor]
A good explanation of why category mistakes sound wrong is that they are meaningless [Magidor]
Category mistakes are neither verifiable nor analytic, so verificationism says they are meaningless [Magidor]
Category mistakes play no role in mental life, so conceptual role semantics makes them meaningless [Magidor]
Maybe when you say 'two is green', the predicate somehow fails to apply? [Magidor]
If category mistakes aren't syntax failure or meaningless, maybe they just lack a truth-value? [Magidor]
Two good sentences should combine to make a good sentence, but that might be absurd [Magidor]
2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / d. Category mistake as pragmatic
Maybe the presuppositions of category mistakes are the abilities of things? [Magidor]
Category mistakes suffer from pragmatic presupposition failure (which is not mere triviality) [Magidor]
Category mistakes because of presuppositions still have a truth value (usually 'false') [Magidor]
In 'two is green', 'green' has a presupposition of being coloured [Magidor]
'Numbers are coloured and the number two is green' seems to be acceptable [Magidor]
2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / e. Category mistake as ontological
The presuppositions in category mistakes reveal nothing about ontology [Magidor]
4. Formal Logic / E. Nonclassical Logics / 8. Intensional Logic
Intensional logic maps logical space, showing which predicates are compatible or incompatible [Magidor]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 1. Set Theory
Second-order set theory just adds a version of Replacement that quantifies over functions [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 2. Mechanics of Set Theory / b. Terminology of ST
An 'upper bound' is the greatest member of a subset; there may be several of these, so there is a 'least' one [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / a. Types of set
Collections of things can't be too big, but collections by a rule seem unlimited in size [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / d. Infinite Sets
Those who reject infinite collections also want to reject the Axiom of Choice [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / g. Axiom of Powers VI
The Power Set is just the collection of functions from one collection to another [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / h. Axiom of Replacement VII
Replacement was immediately accepted, despite having very few implications [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / i. Axiom of Foundation VIII
Foundation says descending chains are of finite length, blocking circularity, or ungrounded sets [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / j. Axiom of Choice IX
Pure collections of things obey Choice, but collections defined by a rule may not [Lavine]
The controversy was not about the Axiom of Choice, but about functions as arbitrary, or given by rules [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 5. Conceptions of Set / c. Logical sets
The 'logical' notion of class has some kind of definition or rule to characterise the class [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 5. Conceptions of Set / e. Iterative sets
The iterative conception of set wasn't suggested until 1947 [Lavine]
The iterative conception needs the Axiom of Infinity, to show how far we can iterate [Lavine]
The iterative conception doesn't unify the axioms, and has had little impact on mathematical proofs [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 5. Conceptions of Set / f. Limitation of Size
Limitation of Size: if it's the same size as a set, it's a set; it uses Replacement [Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 6. Ordering in Sets
A collection is 'well-ordered' if there is a least element, and all of its successors can be identified [Lavine]
5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 7. Second-Order Logic
Second-order logic presupposes a set of relations already fixed by the first-order domain [Lavine]
5. Theory of Logic / D. Assumptions for Logic / 2. Excluded Middle
Mathematical proof by contradiction needs the law of excluded middle [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 1. Mathematics
Mathematics is nowadays (thanks to set theory) regarded as the study of structure, not of quantity [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / b. Types of number
Every rational number, unlike every natural number, is divisible by some other number [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / g. Real numbers
For the real numbers to form a set, we need the Continuum Hypothesis to be true [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / h. Reals from Cauchy
Cauchy gave a necessary condition for the convergence of a sequence [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / i. Reals from cuts
The two sides of the Cut are, roughly, the bounding commensurable ratios [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / c. Counting procedure
Counting results in well-ordering, and well-ordering makes counting possible [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / a. The Infinite
The theory of infinity must rest on our inability to distinguish between very large sizes [Lavine]
The infinite is extrapolation from the experience of indefinitely large size [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / c. Potential infinite
The intuitionist endorses only the potential infinite [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / f. Uncountable infinities
'Aleph-0' is cardinality of the naturals, 'aleph-1' the next cardinal, 'aleph-ω' the ω-th cardinal [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / h. Ordinal infinity
Ordinals are basic to Cantor's transfinite, to count the sets [Lavine]
Paradox: the class of all ordinals is well-ordered, so must have an ordinal as type - giving a bigger ordinal [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / i. Cardinal infinity
Paradox: there is no largest cardinal, but the class of everything seems to be the largest [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 5. Definitions of Number / e. Caesar problem
Some suggest that the Julius Caesar problem involves category mistakes [Magidor]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 6. Mathematics as Set Theory / a. Mathematics is set theory
Set theory will found all of mathematics - except for the notion of proof [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 1. Mathematical Platonism / b. Against mathematical platonism
Modern mathematics works up to isomorphism, and doesn't care what things 'really are' [Lavine]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 10. Constructivism / b. Intuitionism
Intuitionism rejects set-theory to found mathematics [Lavine]
9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 3. Unity Problems / c. Statue and clay
We can explain the statue/clay problem by a category mistake with a false premise [Magidor]
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 2. Propositional Attitudes
Propositional attitudes relate agents to either propositions, or meanings, or sentence/utterances [Magidor]
18. Thought / C. Content / 1. Content
Two sentences with different meanings can, on occasion, have the same content [Magidor]
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 4. Structure of Concepts / b. Analysis of concepts
To grasp 'two' and 'green', must you know that two is not green? [Magidor]
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 1. Syntax
Generative semantics says structure is determined by semantics as well as syntactic rules [Magidor]
'John is easy to please' and 'John is eager to please' have different deep structure [Magidor]
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 2. Semantics
The semantics of a sentence is its potential for changing a context [Magidor]
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 4. Compositionality
Weaker compositionality says meaningful well-formed sentences get the meaning from the parts [Magidor]
Strong compositionality says meaningful expressions syntactically well-formed are meaningful [Magidor]
Understanding unlimited numbers of sentences suggests that meaning is compositional [Magidor]
19. Language / D. Propositions / 2. Abstract Propositions / b. Propositions as possible worlds
Are there partial propositions, lacking truth value in some possible worlds? [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / a. Contextual meaning
A sentence can be meaningful, and yet lack a truth value [Magidor]
In the pragmatic approach, presuppositions are assumed in a context, for successful assertion [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / b. Implicature
The infelicitiousness of trivial truth is explained by uninformativeness, or a static context-set [Magidor]
The infelicitiousness of trivial falsity is explained by expectations, or the loss of a context-set [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / c. Presupposition
A presupposition is what makes an utterance sound wrong if it is not assumed? [Magidor]
A test for presupposition would be if it provoked 'hey wait a minute - I have no idea that....' [Magidor]
The best tests for presupposition are projecting it to negation, conditional, conjunction, questions [Magidor]
If both s and not-s entail a sentence p, then p is a presupposition [Magidor]
Why do certain words trigger presuppositions? [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / d. Metaphor
One theory says metaphors mean the same as the corresponding simile [Magidor]
Theories of metaphor divide over whether they must have literal meanings [Magidor]
The simile view of metaphors removes their magic, and won't explain why we use them [Magidor]
Maybe a metaphor is just a substitute for what is intended literally, like 'icy' for 'unemotional' [Magidor]
Gricean theories of metaphor involve conversational implicatures based on literal meanings [Magidor]
Non-cognitivist views of metaphor says there are no metaphorical meanings, just effects of the literal [Magidor]
Metaphors tend to involve category mistakes, by joining disjoint domains [Magidor]
Metaphors as substitutes for the literal misses one predicate varying with context [Magidor]
23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 1. Ethical Egoism
The greatest good is not the achievement of desire, but to desire what is proper [Menedemus, by Diog. Laertius]