Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Changes in Events and Changes in Things', 'Letters to Russell' and '30: Book of Amos'

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6 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined

7085	The main problem of philosophy is what can and cannot be thought and expressed [Wittgenstein, by Grayling]
	Full Idea: The 'Tractatus' concerns the theory of what can be expressed by propositions (and, which comes to the same thing, can be thought), and what cannot be expressed by propositions, but can only be shown; which, I believe, is the main problem of philosophy.
	From: report of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Letters to Russell [1919]) by A.C. Grayling - Wittgenstein Ch.2
	A reaction: This contains what a I consider the heresy of making thought depend on language, but his main question remains, of the limits of thought. It is dramatised nicely in the 'mysterian' view of the mind-body problem (e.g. Idea 2540).

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / d. Logical atoms

23463	Atomic facts correspond to true elementary propositions [Wittgenstein]
	Full Idea: Atomic fact [Sachverhalt] is what corresponds to an elementary proposition [Elementarsatz] if it is true.
	From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Letters to Russell [1919], CL 125)
	A reaction: This is perhaps the key to the Tractatus, because it is the binding point between world and language. A true realist would allow for atomic facts that may go beyond even possible propositions.

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 8. Facts / b. Types of fact

15201	That Queen Anne is dead is a 'general fact', not a fact about Queen Anne [Prior,AN]
	Full Idea: The fact that Queen Anne has been dead for some years is not, in the strict sense of 'about', a fact about Queen Anne; it is not a fact about anyone or anything - it is a general fact.
	From: Arthur N. Prior (Changes in Events and Changes in Things [1968], p.13), quoted by Robin Le Poidevin - Past, Present and Future of Debate about Tense 1 b
	A reaction: He distinguishes 'general facts' (states of affairs, I think) from 'individual facts', involving some specific object. General facts seem to be what are expressed by negative existential truths, such as 'there is no Loch Ness Monster'. Useful.

19. Language / D. Propositions / 4. Mental Propositions

23490	A thought is mental constituents that relate to reality as words do [Wittgenstein]
	Full Idea: Does a Gedanke [thought] consist of words? No! But of psychical constituents that have the same sort of relation to reality as words.
	From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Letters to Russell [1919], p.125), quoted by Michael Morris - Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Tractatus 4B
	A reaction: This is roughly my view of propositions, as non-lingustic mental events. The 'psychical constituents' seem to be concepts, in a psychological rather than a Fregean sense. This idea allowed transfer of his representation theory from thought to language.

27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / e. Tensed (A) series

22899	'Thank goodness that's over' is not like 'thank goodness that happened on Friday' [Prior,AN]
	Full Idea: One says 'thank goodness that is over', ..and it says something which it is impossible which any use of any tenseless copula with a date should convey. It certainly doesn't mean the same as 'thank goodness that occured on Friday June 15th 1954'.
	From: Arthur N. Prior (Changes in Events and Changes in Things [1968]), quoted by Adrian Bardon - Brief History of the Philosophy of Time 4 'Pervasive'
	A reaction: [Ref uncertain] This seems to be appealing to ordinary usage, in which tenses have huge significance. If we take time (with its past, present and future) as primitive, then tenses can have full weight. Did tenses mean anything at all to Einstein?

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 2. Judaism

7604	Amos was the first prophet to emphasise justice and compassion [Amos, by Armstrong,K]
	Full Idea: Amos was the first prophet to emphasise social justice and compassion.
	From: report of Amos (30: Book of Amos [c.740 BCE]) by Karen Armstrong - A History of God
	A reaction: It increasingly strikes me that early religious thinkers were actually working out the rules for good community living, but seeing them through the distorting spectacles of religion as a means to post-life salvation.