Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Value of Science', 'Recent Debates on the A Priori' and 'On Sufficient Reason'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts

---

4 ideas

2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 1. Laws of Thought

19404	Necessities rest on contradiction, and contingencies on sufficient reason [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: The principle of contradiction is the principle of necessity, and the principle that a sufficient reason must be given is the principle of contingency.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Sufficient Reason [1686], p.95)
	A reaction: [this paragraph is actually undated] Contradictions occur in concrete actuality, as well as in theories and formal systems. If so, then there are necessities in nature. Are they discoverable a posteriori? Leibniz says not.

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 1. Mathematics

9226	If mathematical theories conflict, it may just be that they have different subject matter [Field,H]
	Full Idea: Unlike logic, in the case of mathematics there may be no genuine conflict between alternative theories: it is natural to think that different theories, if both consistent, are simply about different subjects.
	From: Hartry Field (Recent Debates on the A Priori [2005], 7)
	A reaction: For this reason Field places logic at the heart of questions about a priori knowledge, rather than mathematics. My intuitions make me doubt his proposal. Given the very simple basis of, say, arithmetic, I would expect all departments to connect.

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / c. Essence and laws

19403	Each of the infinite possible worlds has its own laws, and the individuals contain those laws [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: As there are an infinity of possible worlds, there are also an infinity of laws, some proper to one, another to another, and each possible individual of any world contains in its own notion the laws of its world.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Sufficient Reason [1686], p.95)
	A reaction: Hence Leibniz is not really a scientific essentialist, in that he doesn't think the laws arise out of the nature of the matter consituting the world. I wonder if the primitive matter of bodies which attaches to the monads is the same in each world?

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 11. Against Laws of Nature

15877	The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts [Poincaré, by Harré]
	Full Idea: In Poincaré's view, we try to construct a language within which the brute facts of experience are expressed as comprehensively and as elegantly as possible. The job of science is the forging of a language precisely suited to that purpose.
	From: report of Henri Poincaré (The Value of Science [1906], Pt III) by Rom Harré - Laws of Nature 2
	A reaction: I'm often struck by how obscure and difficult our accounts of self-evident facts can be. Chairs are easy, and the metaphysics of chairs is hideous. Why is that? I'm a robust realist, but I like Poincaré's idea. He permits facts.