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Single Idea 6548
[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 8. Critique of Set Theory
]
Full Idea
Eventually set theory will have to be either naturalised or rejected, if a thoroughgoing physicalism is to be maintained.
Gist of Idea
Physicalism requires the naturalisation or rejection of set theory
Source
William Lycan (Consciousness [1987], 8.4)
Book Ref
Lycan,William G.: 'Consciousness' [MIT 1995], p.90
A Reaction
Personally I regard Platonism as a form of naturalism (though a rather bold and dramatic one). The central issue seems to be the ability of the human main/brain to form 'abstract' notions about the physical world in which it lives.
The
23 ideas
with the same theme
[objections to the whole idea of set theory]:
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8745
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Classes are logical fictions, and are not part of the ultimate furniture of the world
[Russell]
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6436
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I gradually replaced classes with properties, and they ended as a symbolic convenience
[Russell]
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10044
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Russell denies extensional sets, because the null can't be a collection, and the singleton is just its element
[Russell/Whitehead, by Shapiro]
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18208
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We regard classes as mere symbolic or linguistic conveniences
[Russell/Whitehead]
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11064
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Classes can be reduced to propositional functions
[Russell, by Hanna]
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7548
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Classes, grouped by a convenient property, are logical constructions
[Russell]
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13536
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Skolem did not believe in the existence of uncountable sets
[Skolem]
|
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10304
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Very few things in set theory remain valid in intuitionist mathematics
[Bernays]
|
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3355
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Von Neumann wanted mathematical functions to replace sets
[Neumann, by Benardete,JA]
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9920
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Two objects can apparently make up quite distinct arrangements in sets
[Goodman, by Burgess/Rosen]
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3336
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Two things can never entail three things
[Quine, by Benardete,JA]
|
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10699
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Does a bowl of Cheerios contain all its sets and subsets?
[Boolos]
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8972
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What in the real world could ground the distinction between the sets {A,{A,B}} and {B,{A,B}}?
[Inwagen]
|
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9570
|
In Field's Platonist view, set theory is false because it asserts existence for non-existent things
[Field,H, by Chihara]
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6548
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Physicalism requires the naturalisation or rejection of set theory
[Lycan]
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13481
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Maybe sets should be rethought in terms of the even more basic categories
[Hart,WD]
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7035
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God does not create the world, and then add the classes
[Heil]
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10207
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Anti-realists reject set theory
[Shapiro]
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8758
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We could talk of open sentences, instead of sets
[Chihara, by Shapiro]
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18151
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Could we replace sets by the open sentences that define them?
[Chihara, by Bostock]
|
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9563
|
A pack of wolves doesn't cease when one member dies
[Chihara]
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10108
|
As a reduction of arithmetic, set theory is not fully general, and so not logical
[George/Velleman]
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10687
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Maybe we reduce sets to ordinals, rather than the other way round
[Hossack]
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