Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Science and Method', 'The Putney Debates' and 'Review of Bob Hale's 'Abstract Objects''

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 4. Conceptual Analysis
9184 We can't presume that all interesting concepts can be analysed [Williamson]
     Full Idea: We have no prior reason to suppose that philosophically significant concepts have interesting analyses into necessary and sufficient conditions.
     From: Timothy Williamson (Review of Bob Hale's 'Abstract Objects' [1988])
     A reaction: We might think that they are either analysable or primitive, and that failure of analysis invites us to take a concept as primitive. But maybe God can analyse it and we can't.
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 2. Geometry
10245 One geometry cannot be more true than another [Poincaré]
     Full Idea: One geometry cannot be more true than another; it can only be more convenient.
     From: Henri Poincaré (Science and Method [1908], p.65), quoted by Stewart Shapiro - Philosophy of Mathematics
     A reaction: This is the culminating view after new geometries were developed by tinkering with Euclid's parallels postulate.
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 1. Mathematical Platonism / a. For mathematical platonism
9183 Platonism claims that some true assertions have singular terms denoting abstractions, so abstractions exist [Williamson]
     Full Idea: The Fregean argument for platonism is that some true assertions contain singular terms which denote abstract objects if they denote anything; since the assertions are true, the singular terms denote.
     From: Timothy Williamson (Review of Bob Hale's 'Abstract Objects' [1988])
     A reaction: I am perplexed that anyone would rest their view of reality on such an argument. The obvious comparison would be with true remarks about blatantly fictional characters, or blatantly invented concepts such as 'checkmate'.
24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 2. State Legitimacy / c. Social contract
23215 Even the poorest have a life to lead, and so should consent to who governs them [-]
     Full Idea: For really I think that the poorest hee that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest hee; …and every Man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own Consent to put himself under that Government.
     From: - (The Putney Debates [1647])
     A reaction: [remark made by Thomas Rainsborough] This is the social contract idea which is explicit in Hobbes. I'm sure we can at least trace it back to John Lilburne in the 1630s.