Combining Texts

Ideas for '67: Platonic Questions', 'Number Determiners, Numbers, Arithmetic' and 'Mr Strawson on Logical Theory'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts


2 ideas

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 4. Metaphysics as Science
Philosophy is largely concerned with finding the minimum that science could get by with [Quine]
     Full Idea: Philosophy is in large part concerned with ...what science could get along with, could be reconstructed by means of, as distinct from what science has historically made us of.
     From: Willard Quine (Mr Strawson on Logical Theory [1953], V)
     A reaction: This nicely summarises the programme for the whole of the philosophy of David Lewis, who was Quine's pupil. If you start by asking what it could 'get by with', it is not surprising that simplicity is the top intellectual virtue for both of them.
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 6. Logical Analysis
Logicians don't paraphrase logic into language, because they think in the symbolic language [Quine]
     Full Idea: The logician does not even need to paraphrase the vernacular into his logical notation, for he has learned to think directly in his logical notation, or even (which is the beauty of the thing) to let it think for him.
     From: Willard Quine (Mr Strawson on Logical Theory [1953], V)
     A reaction: See Williamson's love of logic (and his book on modal metaphysics). This idea embodies the dream of hardcore Frege-Russellian analytic philosophers. I wish someone had told me when I studied logic that the target was to actually think symbolically.