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Single Idea 2947
[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / D. Assumptions for Logic / 2. Excluded Middle
]
Full Idea
Without the law of excluded middle, we could not ask the questions that give rise to discoveries.
Gist of Idea
Questions wouldn't lead anywhere without the law of excluded middle
Source
Bertrand Russell (An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth [1940], c.p.88)
Book Ref
'Readings on Logic', ed/tr. Copi,I. /Gould,J. [Macmillan 1964], p.185
The
15 ideas
from 'An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth'
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16477
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Asserting not-p is saying p is false
[Russell]
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16484
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There are four experiences that lead us to talk of 'some' things
[Russell]
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16486
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The physical world doesn't need logic, but the mental world does
[Russell]
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16483
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Disjunction may also arise in practice if there is imperfect memory.
[Russell]
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16480
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A disjunction expresses indecision
[Russell]
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16479
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'Or' expresses hesitation, in a dog at a crossroads, or birds risking grabbing crumbs
[Russell]
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16481
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'Or' expresses a mental state, not something about the world
[Russell]
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16487
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Maybe the 'or' used to describe mental states is not the 'or' of logic
[Russell]
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16475
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A 'heterological' predicate can't be predicated of itself; so is 'heterological' heterological? Yes=no!
[Russell]
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16482
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All our knowledge (if verbal) is general, because all sentences contain general words
[Russell]
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16476
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For simple words, a single experience can show that they are true
[Russell]
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16485
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Perception can't prove universal generalisations, so abandon them, or abandon empiricism?
[Russell]
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16478
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A mother cat is paralysed if equidistant between two needy kittens
[Russell]
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2947
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Questions wouldn't lead anywhere without the law of excluded middle
[Russell]
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4758
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Naïve realism leads to physics, but physics then shows that naïve realism is false
[Russell]
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