more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 9144
[filed under theme 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 1. Abstract Thought
]
Full Idea
Fine says creative definitions can found mathematics. His 'procedural postulationism' says one stipulates not truths, but certain procedures for extending a domain. The procedures can be stated without invoking an abstract ontology.
Gist of Idea
Fine's 'procedural postulationism' uses creative definitions, but avoids abstract ontology
Source
report of Kit Fine (The Limits of Abstraction [2002], 100) by R Cook / P Ebert - Notice of Fine's 'Limits of Abstraction' 4
Book Ref
-: 'British Soc for the Philosophy of Science' [-], p.799
A Reaction
(For creative definitions, see Idea 9143) This sounds close in spirit to fictionalism, but with the emphasis on the procedure (which can presumably be formalized) rather than a pure act of imaginative creation.
Related Idea
Idea 9143
Implicit definitions must be satisfiable, creative definitions introduce things, contextual definitions build on things [Fine,K, by Cook/Ebert]
The
22 ideas
with the same theme
[general concepts not about concrete objects]:
|
9569
|
The origin of geometry started in sensation, then moved to calculation, and then to reason
[Proclus]
|
|
10503
|
We abstract forms from appearances, and acquire knowledge of immaterial things
[Aquinas]
|
|
10509
|
Understanding consists entirely of grasping abstracted species
[Aquinas]
|
|
5827
|
A species of thing is an abstract idea, and a word is a sign that refers to the idea
[Locke]
|
|
23648
|
First we notice and name attributes ('abstracting'); then we notice that subjects share them ('generalising')
[Reid]
|
|
6925
|
The new philosophy thinks of the concrete in a concrete (not a abstract) manner
[Feuerbach]
|
|
9078
|
The study of the nature of Abstract Ideas does not belong to logic, but to a different science
[Mill]
|
|
9080
|
General conceptions are a necessary preliminary to Induction
[Mill]
|
|
9846
|
Defining 'direction' by parallelism doesn't tell you whether direction is a line
[Dummett on Frege]
|
|
9030
|
Abstractions can be interpreted dispositionally, as the ability to recognise or imagine an item
[Price,HH]
|
|
9029
|
If ideas have to be images, then abstract ideas become a paradoxical problem
[Price,HH]
|
|
11102
|
Apply '-ness' or 'class of' to abstract general terms, to get second-level abstract singular terms
[Quine]
|
|
17664
|
Each subject has an appropriate level of abstraction
[Armstrong]
|
|
9873
|
Abstract terms are acceptable as long as we know how they function linguistically
[Dummett]
|
|
10839
|
You can't infer a dog's abstract concepts from its behaviour
[Dummett]
|
|
9086
|
The idea of abstract objects is not ontological; it comes from the epistemological idea of abstraction
[Plantinga]
|
|
9087
|
Theists may see abstract objects as really divine thoughts
[Plantinga]
|
|
8901
|
Abstraction is usually explained either by example, or conflation, or abstraction, or negatively
[Lewis]
|
|
9144
|
Fine's 'procedural postulationism' uses creative definitions, but avoids abstract ontology
[Fine,K, by Cook/Ebert]
|
|
8299
|
Abstractions are non-spatial, or dependent, or derived from concepts
[Lowe]
|
|
9609
|
The older sense of 'abstract' is where 'redness' or 'group' is abstracted from particulars
[Brown,JR]
|
|
9611
|
'Abstract' nowadays means outside space and time, not concrete, not physical
[Brown,JR]
|