9283
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Our ancient beliefs can never be overthrown by subtle arguments [Euripides]
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Full Idea:
Teiresias: We have no use for theological subtleties./ The beliefs we have inherited, as old as time,/ Cannot be overthrown by any argument,/ Nor by the most inventive ingenuity.
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From:
Euripides (The Bacchae [c.407 BCE], 201)
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A reaction:
[trans. Philip Vellacott (Penguin)] Compare Idea 8243. While very conservative societies have amazing resilience in maintaining traditional beliefs, modern culture eats into them, not directly by argument, but by arguments at fifth remove.
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15927
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Definition just needs negation, known variables, conjunction, disjunction, substitution and quantification [Weyl, by Lavine]
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Full Idea:
For mathematics, Weyl arrived (by 1917) at a satisfactory list of definition principles: negation, identification of variables, conjunction, disjunction, substitution of constants, and existential quantification over the domain.
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From:
report of Hermann Weyl (works [1917]) by Shaughan Lavine - Understanding the Infinite V.3
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A reaction:
Lavine summarises this as 'first-order logic with parameters'.
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