Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Albert Camus, Michael Lockwood and Crispin Wright

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2 ideas

2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 1. Dialectic
The best way to understand a philosophical idea is to defend it [Wright,C]
     Full Idea: The most productive way in which to attempt an understanding of any philosophical idea is to work on its defence.
     From: Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983], 1.vii)
     A reaction: Very nice. The key point is that this brings greater understanding than working on attacking an idea, which presumably has the dangers of caricature, straw men etc. It is the Socratic insight that dialectic is the route to wisdom.
2. Reason / D. Definition / 7. Contextual Definition
The attempt to define numbers by contextual definition has been revived [Wright,C, by Fine,K]
     Full Idea: Frege gave up on the attempt to introduce natural numbers by contextual definition, but the project has been revived by neo-logicists.
     From: report of Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983]) by Kit Fine - The Limits of Abstraction II