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| 6021 | It is only when we say a proposition that we speak truly or falsely |
| Full Idea: It is only when we say a proposition that we speak truly or falsely. | |||
| From: Sextus Empiricus (Against the Professors (six books) [c.180], 8.74) | |||
| A reaction: This makes assertions truth-bearers, rather than propositions. But a proposition can be true or false if it is stamped with a date and/or place. "Shakespeare was born in Stratford on 23rd April 1664". No one needs to assert that. |
| 6020 | 'Man is a rational mortal animal' is equivalent to 'if something is a man, that thing is a rational mortal animal' |
| Full Idea: Definitions are identical to universal propositions in meaning, and only differ in syntax, for whoever says 'Man is a rational mortal animal' says the same thing in meaning as whoever says 'If something is a man, that thing is a rational mortal animal'. | |||
| From: Sextus Empiricus (Against the Professors (six books) [c.180], 11.8) | |||
| A reaction: How strikingly like Bertrand Russell's interest and solutions. Sextus shows a straightforward interest in logical form, of a kind we associate with the twentieth century. Did Sextus Empiricus invent quantification? |
| 6026 | How can you investigate without some preconception of your object? |
| Full Idea: A preconception and conception must precede every object of investigation, for how can anyone even investigate without some conception of the object of investigation? | |||
| From: Sextus Empiricus (Against the Professors (six books) [c.180], 8.331a) | |||
| A reaction: The Duhem-Quine thesis about the 'theory-ladenness of observation' is just a revival of some routine ancient scepticism. As well as a conceptual scheme to accommodate the observation, there must also be some motivation for the investigation. |
| 6032 | Right actions, once done, are those with a reasonable justification |
| Full Idea: Right action is whatever, once it has been done, has a reasonable justification. | |||
| From: Sextus Empiricus (Against the Professors (six books) [c.180], 7.158) | |||
| A reaction: Why does he add 'once it has been done'? Wouldn't a proposed action be right if it had a reasonable justification? This grows out of the classical and Stoic emphasis on reason in ethics, and leads towards Scanlon's Contractualism. |
| 1517 | The tektraktys (1+2+3+4=10) is the 'fount of ever-flowing nature' |
| Full Idea: The tektraktys (1+2+3+4=10) is the 'fount of ever-flowing nature', because nature is a harmony of three concords (4th,5th and octave), and these ratios (4:3, 3:2, and 2:1) are found in the tektraktys. | |||
| From: Sextus Empiricus (Against the Professors (six books) [c.180], 7.95) |