Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Anaxarchus, Bertrand Russell and Brad W. Hooker

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4 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 1. Nature of Existence
14463 Existence can only be asserted of something described, not of something named [Russell]
     Full Idea: Existence can only be asserted of something described, not of something named.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy [1919], XVIII)
     A reaction: This is the motivation behind Russell's theory of definite descriptions, and epitomises the approach to ontology through language. Sounds wrong to me!
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / a. Nature of Being
11010 Being is what belongs to every possible object of thought [Russell]
     Full Idea: Being is that which belongs to every conceivable, to every possible object of thought.
     From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903]), quoted by Stephen Read - Thinking About Logic Ch.5
     A reaction: I take Russell's (or anyone's) attempt to distinguish two different senses of the word 'being' or 'exist' to be an umitigated metaphysical disaster.
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / b. Being and existence
14161 Many things have being (as topics of propositions), but may not have actual existence [Russell]
     Full Idea: Numbers, the Homeric gods, relations, chimeras and four-dimensional space all have being, for if they were not entities of a kind, we could not make propositions about them. Existence, on the contrary, is the prerogative of some only amongst the beings.
     From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §427)
     A reaction: This is the analytic philosophy account of being (a long way from Heidegger). Contemporary philosophy seems to be full of confusions on this, with many writers claiming existence for things which should only be awarded 'being' status.
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence
14173 What exists has causal relations, but non-existent things may also have them [Russell]
     Full Idea: It would seem that whatever exists at any part of time has causal relations. This is not a distinguishing characteristic of what exists, since we have seen that two non-existent terms may be cause and effect.
     From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §449)
     A reaction: Presumably he means that the non-existence of something (such as a safety rail) might the cause of an event. This is a problem for Alexander's Principle, in Idea 3534. I think we could redescribe his problem cases, to save Alexander.