Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Herodotus, David Bostock and Michael Morris

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3 ideas

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 3. Predicates
A (modern) predicate is the result of leaving a gap for the name in a sentence [Bostock]
     Full Idea: A simple way of approaching the modern notion of a predicate is this: given any sentence which contains a name, the result of dropping that name and leaving a gap in its place is a predicate. Very different from predicates in Aristotle and Kant.
     From: David Bostock (Intermediate Logic [1997], 3.2)
     A reaction: This concept derives from Frege. To get to grips with contemporary philosophy you have to relearn all sorts of basic words like 'predicate' and 'object'.
19. Language / D. Propositions / 1. Propositions
There must exist a general form of propositions, which are predictabe. It is: such and such is the case [Morris,M]
     Full Idea: The existence of a general propositional form is proved by the fact that there cannot be a proposition whose form could not have been foreseen (i.e. constructed). The general form of the proposition is: Such and such is the case.
     From: Michael Morris (Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Tractatus [2008], 4.5)
     A reaction: [last bit in Ogden translation] LW eventually expresses this symbolically. We could just say a proposition is an assertion. This strikes as either a rather empty claim, or an unfounded one.
19. Language / F. Communication / 2. Assertion
In logic a proposition means the same when it is and when it is not asserted [Bostock]
     Full Idea: In Modus Ponens where the first premise is 'P' and the second 'P→Q', in the first premise P is asserted but in the second it is not. Yet it must mean the same in both premises, or it would be guilty of the fallacy of equivocation.
     From: David Bostock (Philosophy of Mathematics [2009], 7.2)
     A reaction: This is Geach's thought (leading to an objection to expressivism in ethics, that P means the same even if it is not expressed).