Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Intensions Revisited' and 'Logicism Revisited'

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19 ideas

1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 2. Ancient Thought
Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales]
4. Formal Logic / D. Modal Logic ML / 1. Modal Logic
Quantified modal logic collapses if essence is withdrawn [Quine]
5. Theory of Logic / C. Ontology of Logic / 3. If-Thenism
Perhaps If-thenism survives in mathematics if we stick to first-order logic [Musgrave]
The If-thenist view only seems to work for the axiomatised portions of mathematics [Musgrave]
5. Theory of Logic / I. Semantics of Logic / 3. Logical Truth
A statement is logically true if it comes out true in all interpretations in all (non-empty) domains [Musgrave]
Logical truths may contain non-logical notions, as in 'all men are men' [Musgrave]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 4. Axioms for Number / d. Peano arithmetic
No two numbers having the same successor relies on the Axiom of Infinity [Musgrave]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 7. Formalism
Formalism is a bulwark of logical positivism [Musgrave]
Formalism seems to exclude all creative, growing mathematics [Musgrave]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 15. Against Essentialism
Essences can make sense in a particular context or enquiry, as the most basic predicates [Quine]
10. Modality / A. Necessity / 11. Denial of Necessity
Necessity is relative to context; it is what is assumed in an inquiry [Quine]
10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 5. Modality from Actuality
Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius]
10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 1. Possible Worlds / e. Against possible worlds
Possible worlds are a way to dramatise essentialism, and yet they presuppose essentialism [Quine]
10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 3. Transworld Objects / b. Rigid designation
A rigid designator (for all possible worlds) picks out an object by its essential traits [Quine]
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / a. Beliefs
Beliefs can be ascribed to machines [Quine]
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 5. Meaning as Verification
Logical positivists adopted an If-thenist version of logicism about numbers [Musgrave]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / c. Ultimate substances
Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle]
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / a. Explaining movement
Thales must have thought soul causes movement, since he thought magnets have soul [Thales, by Aristotle]
29. Religion / A. Polytheistic Religion / 2. Greek Polytheism
Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius]