36 ideas
7454 | Gassendi is the first great empiricist philosopher [Hacking] |
22366 | There is no objectivity in social sciences - only viewpoints for selecting and organising data [Weber] |
22367 | The results of social research can be true, and not just subjectively valid for one person [Weber] |
13838 | A decent modern definition should always imply a semantics [Hacking] |
13833 | 'Thinning' ('dilution') is the key difference between deduction (which allows it) and induction [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] |
13845 | The various logics are abstractions made from terms like 'if...then' in English [Hacking] |
13844 | A limitation of first-order logic is that it cannot handle branching quantifiers [Hacking] |
13840 | First-order logic is the strongest complete compact theory with Löwenheim-Skolem [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] |
17771 | How we evaluate evidence depends on our background beliefs [Bayne] |
17770 | Clifford's dictum seems to block our beliefs in morality, politics and philosophy [Bayne] |
7452 | An experiment is a test, or an adventure, or a diagnosis, or a dissection [Hacking, by PG] |
7082 | Nature requires causal explanations, but society requires clarification by reasons and motives [Weber, by Critchley] |
7459 | Follow maths for necessary truths, and jurisprudence for contingent truths [Hacking] |
17766 | Physicalism correlates brain and mind, explains causation by thought, and makes nature continuous [Bayne] |
17768 | Perception reveals what animals think, but humans can disengage thought from perception [Bayne] |
17769 | Some people centre space on themselves; others centre space on the earth [Bayne] |
17767 | The alternative to a language of thought is map-like or diagram-like thought [Bayne] |
22155 | We are disenchanted because we rely on science, which ignores values [Weber, by Boulter] |
20725 | The idea of duty in one's calling haunts us, like a lost religion [Weber] |
21132 | Domination is probable obedience by some group of persons [Weber] |
20722 | Acquisition and low consumption lead to saving, investment, and increased wealth [Weber] |
20724 | When asceticism emerged from the monasteries, it helped to drive the modern economy [Weber] |
20717 | Capitalism is not unlimited greed, and may even be opposed to greed [Weber] |
20718 | Modern western capitalism has free labour, business separate from household, and book-keeping [Weber] |
20719 | Punish the heretic, but be indulgent to the sinner [Weber] |