33 ideas
7454 | Gassendi is the first great empiricist philosopher [Hacking] |
13838 | A decent modern definition should always imply a semantics [Hacking] |
13834 | Gentzen's Cut Rule (or transitivity of deduction) is 'If A |- B and B |- C, then A |- C' [Hacking] |
13835 | Only Cut reduces complexity, so logic is constructive without it, and it can be dispensed with [Hacking] |
13833 | 'Thinning' ('dilution') is the key difference between deduction (which allows it) and induction [Hacking] |
13845 | The various logics are abstractions made from terms like 'if...then' in English [Hacking] |
13840 | First-order logic is the strongest complete compact theory with Löwenheim-Skolem [Hacking] |
13844 | A limitation of first-order logic is that it cannot handle branching quantifiers [Hacking] |
13842 | Second-order completeness seems to need intensional entities and possible worlds [Hacking] |
13837 | With a pure notion of truth and consequence, the meanings of connectives are fixed syntactically [Hacking] |
13839 | Perhaps variables could be dispensed with, by arrows joining places in the scope of quantifiers [Hacking] |
13843 | If it is a logic, the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem holds for it [Hacking] |
7447 | Probability was fully explained between 1654 and 1812 [Hacking] |
7448 | Probability is statistical (behaviour of chance devices) or epistemological (belief based on evidence) [Hacking] |
7449 | Epistemological probability based either on logical implications or coherent judgments [Hacking] |
7450 | In the medieval view, only deduction counted as true evidence [Hacking] |
7451 | Formerly evidence came from people; the new idea was that things provided evidence [Hacking] |
7452 | An experiment is a test, or an adventure, or a diagnosis, or a dissection [Hacking, by PG] |
7459 | Follow maths for necessary truths, and jurisprudence for contingent truths [Hacking] |
4921 | Quantum states in microtubules could bind brain activity to produce consciousness [Penrose] |
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] |