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Ideas for 'Protagoras', 'Philosophies of Mathematics' and 'What is Philosophy?'

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9 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 3. Value of Logic
Logic has an infantile idea of philosophy [Deleuze/Guattari]
     Full Idea: Logic has an infantile idea of philosophy.
     From: G Deleuze / F Guattari (What is Philosophy? [1991], 1.1)
     A reaction: This offers some explanation of why Anglo-American philosophers are steeped in logic, and the continentals just ignore it. I have some sympathy with the French view. Logic seems to study language with all the interesting part drained off.
Logic hates philosophy, and wishes to supplant it [Deleuze/Guattari]
     Full Idea: A real hatred inspires logic's rivalry with, or its will to supplant, philosophy.
     From: G Deleuze / F Guattari (What is Philosophy? [1991], 2.6)
     A reaction: A delightful corrective to the neurotic inferiority that most English-speaking philosophers feel about their failure to master logic. What was Aristotle playing at when he invented logic? Philosophical talent is utterly different from a talent for logic.
5. Theory of Logic / D. Assumptions for Logic / 2. Excluded Middle
Asserting Excluded Middle is a hallmark of realism about the natural world [George/Velleman]
     Full Idea: A hallmark of our realist stance towards the natural world is that we are prepared to assert the Law of Excluded Middle for all statements about it. For all statements S, either S is true, or not-S is true.
     From: A.George / D.J.Velleman (Philosophies of Mathematics [2002], Ch.4)
     A reaction: Personally I firmly subscribe to realism, so I suppose I must subscribe to Excluded Middle. ...Provided the statement is properly formulated. Or does liking excluded middle lead me to realism?
5. Theory of Logic / J. Model Theory in Logic / 1. Logical Models
A 'model' is a meaning-assignment which makes all the axioms true [George/Velleman]
     Full Idea: A 'model' of a theory is an assignment of meanings to the symbols of its language which makes all of its axioms come out true.
     From: A.George / D.J.Velleman (Philosophies of Mathematics [2002], Ch.7)
     A reaction: If the axioms are all true, and the theory is sound, then all of the theorems will also come out true.
5. Theory of Logic / J. Model Theory in Logic / 2. Isomorphisms
Differences between isomorphic structures seem unimportant [George/Velleman]
     Full Idea: Mathematicians tend to regard the differences between isomorphic mathematical structures as unimportant.
     From: A.George / D.J.Velleman (Philosophies of Mathematics [2002], Ch.3)
     A reaction: This seems to be a pointer towards Structuralism as the underlying story in mathematics. The intrinsic character of so-called 'objects' seems unimportant. How theories map onto one another (and onto the world?) is all that matters?
5. Theory of Logic / K. Features of Logics / 2. Consistency
Consistency is a purely syntactic property, unlike the semantic property of soundness [George/Velleman]
     Full Idea: Consistency is a purely syntactic property, unlike the semantic property of soundness.
     From: A.George / D.J.Velleman (Philosophies of Mathematics [2002], Ch.6)
A 'consistent' theory cannot contain both a sentence and its negation [George/Velleman]
     Full Idea: If there is a sentence such that both the sentence and its negation are theorems of a theory, then the theory is 'inconsistent'. Otherwise it is 'consistent'.
     From: A.George / D.J.Velleman (Philosophies of Mathematics [2002], Ch.7)
5. Theory of Logic / K. Features of Logics / 3. Soundness
Soundness is a semantic property, unlike the purely syntactic property of consistency [George/Velleman]
     Full Idea: Soundness is a semantic property, unlike the purely syntactic property of consistency.
     From: A.George / D.J.Velleman (Philosophies of Mathematics [2002], Ch.6)
5. Theory of Logic / K. Features of Logics / 4. Completeness
A 'complete' theory contains either any sentence or its negation [George/Velleman]
     Full Idea: If there is a sentence such that neither the sentence nor its negation are theorems of a theory, then the theory is 'incomplete'. Otherwise it is 'complete'.
     From: A.George / D.J.Velleman (Philosophies of Mathematics [2002], Ch.7)
     A reaction: Interesting questions are raised about undecidable sentences, irrelevant sentences, unknown sentences....