more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
We are in the dark about the nature of philosophical problems and methods if we are in the dark about types and categories.
Gist of Idea
We can't do philosophy without knowledge of types and categories
Source
Gilbert Ryle (Categories [1938], p.189), quoted by Ofra Magidor - Category Mistakes 1.2
Book Ref
Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.8
A Reaction
Magidor and others take this to be an assertion about language and logic, but I take it to be an assertion about reality. It is an early assertion of Schaffer's claim that ontology concerns the structure of existence, and not just what exists.
Related Idea
Idea 13748 Grounding is unanalysable and primitive, and is the basic structuring concept in metaphysics [Schaffer,J]
| 11034 | The differentiae of genera which are different are themselves different in kind [Aristotle] |
| 12491 | Asking whether man's will is free is liking asking if sleep is fast or virtue is square [Locke] |
| 8632 | You can't transfer external properties unchanged to apply to ideas [Frege] |
| 8468 | The sentence 'procrastination drinks quadruplicity' is meaningless, rather than false [Russell, by Orenstein] |
| 6437 | The theory of types makes 'Socrates and killing are two' illegitimate [Russell] |
| 18002 | As well as a truth value, propositions have a range of significance for their variables [Russell] |
| 21561 | 'The number one is bald' or 'the number one is fond of cream cheese' are meaningless [Russell] |
| 18706 | Words of the same kind can be substituted in a proposition without producing nonsense [Wittgenstein] |
| 18004 | We can't do philosophy without knowledge of types and categories [Ryle] |
| 17998 | Category mistakes are either syntactic, semantic, or pragmatic [Magidor] |
| 18019 | People have dreams which involve category mistakes [Magidor] |