Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Hippolytus, Jeffrey H. Sicha and Jonathan Swift

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4 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 9. Limits of Reason

22520	You can't reason someone out of an irrational opinion [Swift]
	Full Idea: Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired.
	From: Jonathan Swift (Letters to a Young Clergyman [1720])
	A reaction: It would be hard to prove this, and someone full of irrational beliefs may have their rationality awakened by a sound argument. Nice remark, but too pessimistic.

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / d. Natural numbers

17423	The essence of natural numbers must reflect all the functions they perform [Sicha]
	Full Idea: What is really essential to being a natural number is what is common to the natural numbers in all the functions they perform.
	From: Jeffrey H. Sicha (Counting and the Natural Numbers [1968], 2)
	A reaction: I could try using natural numbers as insults. 'You despicable seven!' 'How dare you!' I actually agree. The question about functions is always 'what is it about this thing that enables it to perform this function'.

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / c. Counting procedure

17425	To know how many, you need a numerical quantifier, as well as equinumerosity [Sicha]
	Full Idea: A knowledge of 'how many' cannot be inferred from the equinumerosity of two collections; a numerical quantifier statement is needed.
	From: Jeffrey H. Sicha (Counting and the Natural Numbers [1968], 3)

17424	Counting puts an initial segment of a serial ordering 1-1 with some other entities [Sicha]
	Full Idea: Counting is the activity of putting an initial segment of a serially ordered string in 1-1 correspondence with some other collection of entities.
	From: Jeffrey H. Sicha (Counting and the Natural Numbers [1968], 2)