64 ideas
15105 | F(x) walked into a bar. The barman said.. [Sommers,W] |
9935 | Mathematical truth is always compromising between ordinary language and sensible epistemology [Benacerraf] |
13412 | Obtaining numbers by abstraction is impossible - there are too many; only a rule could give them, in order [Benacerraf] |
13413 | We must explain how we know so many numbers, and recognise ones we haven't met before [Benacerraf] |
9912 | There are no such things as numbers [Benacerraf] |
9901 | Numbers can't be sets if there is no agreement on which sets they are [Benacerraf] |
13411 | If numbers are basically the cardinals (Frege-Russell view) you could know some numbers in isolation [Benacerraf] |
9151 | Benacerraf says numbers are defined by their natural ordering [Benacerraf, by Fine,K] |
13891 | To understand finite cardinals, it is necessary and sufficient to understand progressions [Benacerraf, by Wright,C] |
17904 | A set has k members if it one-one corresponds with the numbers less than or equal to k [Benacerraf] |
17906 | To explain numbers you must also explain cardinality, the counting of things [Benacerraf] |
9898 | We can count intransitively (reciting numbers) without understanding transitive counting of items [Benacerraf] |
17903 | Someone can recite numbers but not know how to count things; but not vice versa [Benacerraf] |
9897 | The application of a system of numbers is counting and measurement [Benacerraf] |
9900 | For Zermelo 3 belongs to 17, but for Von Neumann it does not [Benacerraf] |
9899 | The successor of x is either x and all its members, or just the unit set of x [Benacerraf] |
8697 | Disputes about mathematical objects seem irrelevant, and mathematicians cannot resolve them [Benacerraf, by Friend] |
8304 | No particular pair of sets can tell us what 'two' is, just by one-to-one correlation [Benacerraf, by Lowe] |
9906 | If ordinal numbers are 'reducible to' some set-theory, then which is which? [Benacerraf] |
13415 | An adequate account of a number must relate it to its series [Benacerraf] |
9907 | If any recursive sequence will explain ordinals, then it seems to be the structure which matters [Benacerraf] |
9908 | The job is done by the whole system of numbers, so numbers are not objects [Benacerraf] |
9909 | The number 3 defines the role of being third in a progression [Benacerraf] |
9911 | Number words no more have referents than do the parts of a ruler [Benacerraf] |
8925 | Mathematical objects only have properties relating them to other 'elements' of the same structure [Benacerraf] |
9938 | How can numbers be objects if order is their only property? [Benacerraf, by Putnam] |
9910 | Number-as-objects works wholesale, but fails utterly object by object [Benacerraf] |
17927 | Realists have semantics without epistemology, anti-realists epistemology but bad semantics [Benacerraf, by Colyvan] |
9936 | The platonist view of mathematics doesn't fit our epistemology very well [Benacerraf] |
9903 | Number words are not predicates, as they function very differently from adjectives [Benacerraf] |
9904 | The set-theory paradoxes mean that 17 can't be the class of all classes with 17 members [Benacerraf] |
12408 | Sartre to Waitress: Coffee with no cream, please... [Sommers,W] |
12397 | Said Plato: 'The things that we feel... [Sommers,W] |
9905 | Identity statements make sense only if there are possible individuating conditions [Benacerraf] |
12407 | Barman to Descartes: Would you like another drink?... [Sommers,W] |
12399 | There was a young student called Fred... [Sommers,W] |
20963 | A philosopher and his wife are out for a drive... [Sommers,W] |
12404 | Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd.... [Sommers,W] |
12403 | There once was a man who said: 'God... [Sommers,W] |
12402 | ..But if he's a student of Berkeley... [Sommers,W] |
12409 | The philosopher Berkeley once said.. [Sommers,W] |
14694 | "My dog's got synaesthesia." How does he smell? ..... [Sommers,W] |
12401 | A toper who spies in the distance... [Sommers,W] |
12410 | There once was a man who said 'Damn!... [Sommers,W] |
9392 | How do behaviourists greet each other? [Sommers,W] |
12405 | 'If you're aristocratic,' said Nietzsche... [Sommers,W] |
9391 | Why do anarchists drink herbal tea? [Sommers,W] |
12400 | Cries the maid: 'You must marry me Hume!'... [Sommers,W] |
16527 | Causation - we all thought we knew it/ Till Hume came along and saw through it/…. [Sommers,W] |
17592 | The barman called 'Time!', and Augustine said..... [Sommers,W] |
15208 | The past, present and future walked into a bar.... [Sommers,W] |
20712 | God is 'eternal' either by being non-temporal, or by enduring forever [Davies,B] |
20701 | Can God be good, if he has not maximised goodness? [Davies,B] |
20702 | The goodness of God may be a higher form than the goodness of moral agents [Davies,B] |
20703 | How could God have obligations? What law could possibly impose them? [Davies,B] |
20694 | 'Natural theology' aims to prove God to anyone (not just believers) by reason or argument [Davies,B] |
20706 | A distinct cause of the universe can't be material (which would be part of the universe) [Davies,B] |
20707 | The universe exhibits design either in its sense of purpose, or in its regularity [Davies,B] |
20708 | If God is an orderly being, he cannot be the explanation of order [Davies,B] |
20710 | Maybe an abnormal state of mind is needed to experience God? [Davies,B] |
20711 | A believer can experience the world as infused with God [Davies,B] |
20709 | The experiences of God are inconsistent, not universal, and untestable [Davies,B] |
20697 | One does not need a full understanding of God in order to speak of God [Davies,B] |
20699 | Paradise would not contain some virtues, such as courage [Davies,B] |