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Single Idea 9924
[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / D. Modal Logic ML / 1. Modal Logic
]
Full Idea
If you want a logic of metaphysical possibility, the existing literature was originally developed to supply a logic of metalogical possibility, and still reflects its origins.
Gist of Idea
Modal logic gives an account of metalogical possibility, not metaphysical possibility
Source
JP Burgess / G Rosen (A Subject with No Object [1997], II.B.3.b)
Book Ref
Burgess,J/Rosen,G: 'A Subject with No Object' [OUP 1997], p.141
A Reaction
This is a warning shot (which I don't fully understand) to people like me, who were beginning to think they could fill their ontology with possibilia, which could then be incorporated into the wider account of logical thinking. Ah well...
The
15 ideas
from JP Burgess / G Rosen
9918
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Abstract/concrete is a distinction of kind, not degree
[Burgess/Rosen]
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9919
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The old debate classified representations as abstract, not entities
[Burgess/Rosen]
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9921
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'True' is only occasionally useful, as in 'everything Fermat believed was true'
[Burgess/Rosen]
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9922
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If space is really just a force-field, then it is a physical entity
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9923
|
We should talk about possible existence, rather than actual existence, of numbers
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9924
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Modal logic gives an account of metalogical possibility, not metaphysical possibility
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9925
|
Structuralism and nominalism are normally rivals, but might work together
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9926
|
A relation is either a set of sets of sets, or a set of sets
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9928
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Mereology implies that acceptance of entities entails acceptance of conglomerates
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9927
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Mathematics has ascended to higher and higher levels of abstraction
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9929
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Much of what science says about concrete entities is 'abstraction-laden'
[Burgess/Rosen]
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9930
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Abstraction is on a scale, of sets, to attributes, to type-formulas, to token-formulas
[Burgess/Rosen]
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9933
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The paradoxes are only a problem for Frege; Cantor didn't assume every condition determines a set
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9932
|
The paradoxes no longer seem crucial in critiques of set theory
[Burgess/Rosen]
|
9934
|
Number words became nouns around the time of Plato
[Burgess/Rosen]
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