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Full Idea
The logician does not even need to paraphrase the vernacular into his logical notation, for he has learned to think directly in his logical notation, or even (which is the beauty of the thing) to let it think for him.
Gist of Idea
Logicians don't paraphrase logic into language, because they think in the symbolic language
Source
Willard Quine (Mr Strawson on Logical Theory [1953], V)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.150
A Reaction
See Williamson's love of logic (and his book on modal metaphysics). This idea embodies the dream of hardcore Frege-Russellian analytic philosophers. I wish someone had told me when I studied logic that the target was to actually think symbolically.
Related Ideas
Idea 22465 We see a moral distinction between doing and allowing to happen [Foot]
Idea 6858 Formal logic struck me as exactly the language I wanted to think in [Williamson]
| 19231 | Metaphysics is turning into logic, and logic is becoming mathematics [Peirce] |
| 22270 | Frege changed philosophy by extending logic's ability to check the grounds of thinking [Potter on Frege] |
| 15948 | Frege developed formal systems to avoid unnoticed assumptions [Frege, by Lavine] |
| 21573 | When problems are analysed properly, they are either logical, or not philosophical at all [Russell] |
| 6116 | A logical language would show up the fallacy of inferring reality from ordinary language [Russell] |
| 21546 | We can't sharply distinguish variables, domains and values, if symbols frighten us [Russell] |
| 22436 | Logicians don't paraphrase logic into language, because they think in the symbolic language [Quine] |
| 8996 | If if time is money then if time is not money then time is money then if if if time is not money... [Quine] |
| 15802 | I use variables to show that each item remains the same entity throughout [Chisholm] |
| 15210 | Humeans see analysis in terms of formal logic, because necessities are fundamentally logical relations [Harré/Madden] |
| 13515 | To study abstract problems, some knowledge of set theory is essential [Hart,WD] |
| 9766 | Study vagueness first by its logic, then by its truth-conditions, and then its metaphysics [Fine,K] |
| 11051 | Frege's logical approach dominates the analytical tradition [Hanna] |