63 ideas
20981 | What justifies reliance on reason? Is it just a tool? Why is it better than blind belief? [Sen] |
20982 | In politics and ethics, scrutiny from different perspectives is essential for objectivity [Sen] |
15945 | Second-order set theory just adds a version of Replacement that quantifies over functions [Lavine] |
15914 | An 'upper bound' is the greatest member of a subset; there may be several of these, so there is a 'least' one [Lavine] |
15921 | Collections of things can't be too big, but collections by a rule seem unlimited in size [Lavine] |
15937 | Those who reject infinite collections also want to reject the Axiom of Choice [Lavine] |
15936 | The Power Set is just the collection of functions from one collection to another [Lavine] |
15899 | Replacement was immediately accepted, despite having very few implications [Lavine] |
15930 | Foundation says descending chains are of finite length, blocking circularity, or ungrounded sets [Lavine] |
15920 | Pure collections of things obey Choice, but collections defined by a rule may not [Lavine] |
15898 | The controversy was not about the Axiom of Choice, but about functions as arbitrary, or given by rules [Lavine] |
15919 | The 'logical' notion of class has some kind of definition or rule to characterise the class [Lavine] |
15900 | The iterative conception of set wasn't suggested until 1947 [Lavine] |
15931 | The iterative conception needs the Axiom of Infinity, to show how far we can iterate [Lavine] |
15932 | The iterative conception doesn't unify the axioms, and has had little impact on mathematical proofs [Lavine] |
15933 | Limitation of Size: if it's the same size as a set, it's a set; it uses Replacement [Lavine] |
15913 | A collection is 'well-ordered' if there is a least element, and all of its successors can be identified [Lavine] |
15926 | Second-order logic presupposes a set of relations already fixed by the first-order domain [Lavine] |
15934 | Mathematical proof by contradiction needs the law of excluded middle [Lavine] |
15907 | Mathematics is nowadays (thanks to set theory) regarded as the study of structure, not of quantity [Lavine] |
15942 | Every rational number, unlike every natural number, is divisible by some other number [Lavine] |
15922 | For the real numbers to form a set, we need the Continuum Hypothesis to be true [Lavine] |
18250 | Cauchy gave a necessary condition for the convergence of a sequence [Lavine] |
15904 | The two sides of the Cut are, roughly, the bounding commensurable ratios [Lavine] |
15912 | Counting results in well-ordering, and well-ordering makes counting possible [Lavine] |
15949 | The theory of infinity must rest on our inability to distinguish between very large sizes [Lavine] |
15947 | The infinite is extrapolation from the experience of indefinitely large size [Lavine] |
15940 | The intuitionist endorses only the potential infinite [Lavine] |
15909 | 'Aleph-0' is cardinality of the naturals, 'aleph-1' the next cardinal, 'aleph-ω' the ω-th cardinal [Lavine] |
15915 | Ordinals are basic to Cantor's transfinite, to count the sets [Lavine] |
15917 | Paradox: the class of all ordinals is well-ordered, so must have an ordinal as type - giving a bigger ordinal [Lavine] |
15918 | Paradox: there is no largest cardinal, but the class of everything seems to be the largest [Lavine] |
15929 | Set theory will found all of mathematics - except for the notion of proof [Lavine] |
15935 | Modern mathematics works up to isomorphism, and doesn't care what things 'really are' [Lavine] |
15928 | Intuitionism rejects set-theory to found mathematics [Lavine] |
20990 | Rationality is conformity to reasons that can be sustained even after scrutiny [Sen] |
21005 | A human right is not plausible if public scrutiny might reject it [Sen] |
20983 | The original position insures that the agreements reached are fair [Sen] |
20987 | The veil of ignorance encourages neutral interests, but not a wider view of values [Sen] |
20937 | The state should produce higher civilisations for all, in tune with the economic apparatus [Gramsci] |
20984 | A social contract limits the pursuit of justice to members of a single society [Sen] |
20935 | Eventually political parties lose touch with the class they represent, which is dangerous [Gramsci] |
20986 | A person's voice may count because of their interests, or because of their good sense [Sen] |
20936 | Caesarism emerges when two forces in society are paralysed in conflict [Gramsci] |
20941 | Totalitarian parties cut their members off from other cultural organisations [Gramsci] |
21001 | Famines tend to be caused by authoritarian rule [Sen] |
20939 | What is the function of a parliament? Does it even constitute a part of the State structure? [Gramsci] |
21002 | Effective democracy needs tolerant values [Sen] |
20999 | Democracy as 'government by discussion' now has wide support [Sen] |
20979 | Democracy needs more than some institutions; diverse sections of the people must be heard [Sen] |
20938 | Liberalism's weakness is its powerful rigid bureaucracy [Gramsci] |
20993 | Eradicating smallpox does not impoverish nature [Sen] |
20995 | Capabilities are part of freedom, involving real opportunities [Sen] |
20998 | Freedom can involve capabilities, independence and non-interference [Sen] |
20997 | The need for equality among people arises from impartiality and objectivity [Sen] |
20996 | All modern theories of justice demand equality of something [Sen] |
20940 | Perfect political equality requires economic equality [Gramsci] |
20988 | Freedom from torture or terrorist attacks is independent of citizenship [Sen] |
20980 | You don't need a complete theory of justice to see that slavery is wrong [Sen] |
20978 | Practical justice concerns not only ideals, but ways to achieve them [Sen] |
20985 | Our institutions should promote justice, rather than embodying it [Sen] |
20994 | We must focus on removing manifest injustice, not just try to design a perfect society [Sen] |
21000 | If justice needs public reasoning, which needs democracy, then justice and democracy are linked [Sen] |