Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World' and 'Mathematics and the Metaphysicians'

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

display all the ideas for this combination of texts

---

2 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / E. Structures of Logic / 1. Logical Form

4730	For Aristotle, the subject-predicate structure of Greek reflected a substance-accident structure of reality [Aristotle, by O'Grady]
	Full Idea: Aristotle apparently believed that the subject-predicate structure of Greek reflected the substance-accident nature of reality.
	From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Paul O'Grady - Relativism Ch.4
	A reaction: We need not assume that Aristotle is wrong. It is a chicken-and-egg. There is something obvious about subject-predicate language, if one assumes that unified objects are part of nature, and not just conventional.

5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 4. Paradoxes in Logic / a. Achilles paradox

7557	To solve Zeno's paradox, reject the axiom that the whole has more terms than the parts [Russell]
	Full Idea: Presumably Zeno appealed to the axiom that the whole has more terms than the parts; so if Achilles were to overtake the tortoise, he would have been in more places than the tortoise, which he can't be; but the conclusion is absurd, so reject the axiom.
	From: Bertrand Russell (Mathematics and the Metaphysicians [1901], p.89)
	A reaction: The point is that the axiom is normally acceptable (a statue contains more particles than the arm of the statue), but it breaks down when discussing infinity (Idea 7556). Modern theories of infinity are needed to solve Zeno's Paradoxes.