Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Leibniz: Guide for the Perplexed', 'works' and 'Logical Foundations of Probability'

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4 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / D. Assumptions for Logic / 2. Excluded Middle

7334	Anti-realism needs an intuitionist logic with no law of excluded middle [Dummett, by Miller,A]
	Full Idea: Dummett argues that antirealism implies that classical logic must be given up in favour of some form of intuitionistic logic that does not have the law of excluded middle as a theorem.
	From: report of Michael Dummett (works [1970]) by Alexander Miller - Philosophy of Language 9.4
	A reaction: Only realists can think every proposition is either true or false, even if it is beyond the bounds of our possible knowledge (e.g. tiny details from remote history). Personally I think "Plato had brown eyes" is either true or false.

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 4. Anti-realism

3303	For anti-realists there are no natural distinctions between objects [Dummett, by Benardete,JA]
	Full Idea: Dummett says that anti-realism offers us a picture of reality as an amorphous lump not yet articulated into discrete objects.
	From: report of Michael Dummett (works [1970]) by José A. Benardete - Metaphysics: the logical approach Ch.2
	A reaction: This might be called 'weak' anti-realism, where 'strong' anti-realism is the view that reality is quite unknowable, and possibly non-existent.

9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / d. Substance defined

19347	Substance needs independence, unity, and stability (for individuation); also it is a subject, for predicates [Perkins]
	Full Idea: For individuation, substance needs three properties: independence, to separate it from other things; unity, to call it one thing, rather than an aggregate; and permanence or stability over time. Its other role is as subject for predicates.
	From: Franklin Perkins (Leibniz: Guide for the Perplexed [2007], 3.1)
	A reaction: Perkins is describing the Aristotelian view, which is taken up by Leibniz. 'Substance' is not a controversial idea, if we see that it only means that the world is full of 'things'. It is an unusual philosopher wholly totally denies that.

14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation

13048	Good explications are exact, fruitful, simple and similar to the explicandum [Carnap, by Salmon]
	Full Idea: Carnap's four criteria for giving a good explication are similarity to the explicandum, exactness, fruitfulness and simplicity.
	From: report of Rudolph Carnap (Logical Foundations of Probability [1950], Ch.1) by Wesley Salmon - Four Decades of Scientific Explanation 0.1
	A reaction: [compressed] Salmon's view is that this represents the old attitude, that the contribution of philosophy to explanation is the clarification of the key concepts. Carnap is, of course, a logical empiricist.