display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers
6 ideas
| 5396 | Three Laws of Thought: identity, contradiction, and excluded middle [Russell] |
| Full Idea: For no very good reason, three principles have been singled out by tradition under the name of 'Laws of Thought': the laws of identity ('what is, is'), contradiction ('never be and not be'), and excluded middle ('always be or not be'). | |
| From: Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 7) | |
| A reaction: 'For no very good reason' seems a bit unfair, probably to medieval logicians, who deserve more respect. Russell suggests that the concept of implication deserves to be on the list. Presumably optimism about thinking is a presupposition of thought. |
| 5405 | The law of contradiction is not a 'law of thought', but a belief about things [Russell] |
| Full Idea: The law of contradiction is not a 'law of thought' ..because it is a belief about things, not only about thoughts. | |
| From: Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 9) | |
| A reaction: The principle is a commitment about things, but it is inconceivable that any experience, no matter how weird, could ever contradict it. It would be better to assume that we had gone insane, than that a contradiction had occurred in the world. |
| 17632 | Non-contradiction was learned from instances, and then found to be indubitable [Russell] |
| Full Idea: The law of contradiction must have been originally discovered by generalising from instances, though, once discovered, it was found to be quite as indubitable as the instances. | |
| From: Bertrand Russell (Regressive Method for Premises in Mathematics [1907], p.274) |
| 416 | Beautiful harmony comes from things that are in opposition to one another [Heraclitus] |
| Full Idea: That which is in opposition is in concert, and from things that differ comes the beautiful harmony. | |
| From: Heraclitus (fragments/reports [c.500 BCE], B008), quoted by Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics 1155b04 |
| 425 | A thing can have opposing tensions but be in harmony, like a lyre [Heraclitus] |
| Full Idea: They do not understand how that which differs with itself is in agreement: harmony consists of opposing tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre. | |
| From: Heraclitus (fragments/reports [c.500 BCE], B051), quoted by Hippolytus - Refutation of All Heresies 9.9.2 | |
| A reaction: Like squabbling couples who resent outside intervention. The remark suggests the virtues of 'dialectic', and may get to the heart of what philosophy is. |
| 6106 | Reducing entities and premisses makes error less likely [Russell] |
| Full Idea: You diminish the risk of error with every diminution of entities and premisses. | |
| From: Bertrand Russell (The Philosophy of Logical Atomism [1918], §VIII) | |
| A reaction: If there are actually lots of entities, you would increase error if you reduced them too much. Ockham's Razor seems more to do with the limited capacity of the human mind than with the simplicity or complexity of reality. See Idea 4456. |