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Single Idea 8999

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / C. Ontology of Logic / 4. Logic by Convention ]

Full Idea

If logic is to proceed mediately from conventions, logic is needed for inferring logic from the conventions. Conventions for adopting logical primitives can only be communicated by free use of those very idioms.

Gist of Idea

Logic isn't conventional, because logic is needed to infer logic from conventions

Source

Willard Quine (Truth by Convention [1935], p.104)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.104


A Reaction

A common pattern of modern argument, which always seems to imply that nothing can ever get off the ground. I suspect that there are far more benign circles in the world of thought than most philosophers imagine.


The 10 ideas from 'Truth by Convention'

Logic needs general conventions, but that needs logic to apply them to individual cases [Quine, by Rey]
Claims that logic and mathematics are conventional are either empty, uninteresting, or false [Quine]
Logic isn't conventional, because logic is needed to infer logic from conventions [Quine]
If a convention cannot be communicated until after its adoption, what is its role? [Quine]
Quine quickly dismisses If-thenism [Quine, by Musgrave]
If mathematics follows from definitions, then it is conventional, and part of logic [Quine]
If analytic geometry identifies figures with arithmetical relations, logicism can include geometry [Quine]
Definition by words is determinate but relative; fixing contexts could make it absolute [Quine]
If if time is money then if time is not money then time is money then if if if time is not money... [Quine]
There are four different possible conventional accounts of geometry [Quine]