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Full Idea
Why are logical (or mathematical, or analytic...) truths necessary? The Humean's answer is that this is just how our concept of necessity works.
Gist of Idea
Humeans says mathematics and logic are necessary because that is how our concept of necessity works
Source
Theodore Sider (Writing the Book of the World [2011], 12.11)
Book Ref
Sider,Theodore: 'Writing the Book of the World' [OUP 2011], p.288
A Reaction
This is why I (unlike Sider) am not a Humean. If we agreed that 'necessary' meant 'whatever is decreed by the Pope', that would so obviously not be necessary that we would have to start searching nature for true necessities.
| 24030 | 3+4=7 is necessary because we cannot conceive of seven without including three and four [Descartes] |
| 18796 | Formal experience conditions show what is possible, and general conditions what is necessary [Kant] |
| 22018 | Necessary truths derive from basic assertion and negation [Fichte, by Pinkard] |
| 15216 | Is conceptual necessity just conventional, or does it mirror something about nature? [Harré/Madden] |
| 15235 | There is a conceptual necessity when properties become a standard part of a nominal essence [Harré/Madden] |
| 16422 | The necessity of a proposition concerns reality, not our words or concepts [Stalnaker] |
| 16423 | Conceptual possibilities are metaphysical possibilities we can conceive of [Stalnaker] |
| 13810 | The source of de dicto necessity is not concepts, but the actual properties of the thing [Forbes,G] |
| 12028 | De re necessity is a form of conceptual necessity, just as de dicto necessity is [Forbes,G] |
| 11169 | Conceptual necessities rest on the nature of all concepts [Fine,K] |
| 15087 | Conceptual necessities are made true by all concepts [Hale] |
| 12436 | Concept-identities explain how we know necessities, not why they are necessary [Hale] |
| 15033 | Humeans says mathematics and logic are necessary because that is how our concept of necessity works [Sider] |