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Ideas for 'Lectures 1930-32 (student notes)', 'Causality and Properties' and 'De Re Aedificatoria'

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3 ideas

1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 4. Conceptual Analysis
Analysis aims at internal relationships, not reduction [Shoemaker]
     Full Idea: The goal of philosophical analysis should not be reductive analysis but rather the charting of internal relationships.
     From: Sydney Shoemaker (Causality and Properties [1980], §07)
     A reaction: See Idea 8558 for an attempt by Shoemaker himself. The idea that there has never been a successful analysis has become a truism among pessimistic analytic philosophers. But there are wonderful relationship maps (Quine, Davidson, Lewis, Lowe).
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis
We don't need a theory of truth, because we use the word perfectly well [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: It is nonsense to try to find a theory of truth, because we can see that in everyday life we use the word quite clearly and definitely in various different senses.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Lectures 1930-32 (student notes) [1931], C V B)
     A reaction: This was a year before Tarski published his famous theory of truth for formal languages. Prior to that, most philosophers were giving up on truth. Would he say the same about 'gravity' or 'inflation'?
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 7. Limitations of Analysis
We already know what we want to know, and analysis gives us no new facts [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: In philosophy we know already all that we want to know; philosophical analysis does not give us any new facts.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Lectures 1930-32 (student notes) [1931], B V.1)