4 ideas
13536 | Skolem did not believe in the existence of uncountable sets [Skolem] |
Full Idea: Skolem did not believe in the existence of uncountable sets. | |
From: Thoralf Skolem (works [1920], 5.3) | |
A reaction: Kit Fine refers somewhere to 'unrepentent Skolemites' who still hold this view. |
12733 | Because of the definitions of cause, effect and power, cause and effect have the same power [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: The primary mechanical axiom is that the whole cause and the entire effect have the same power [potentia]. ..This depends on the definition of cause, effect and power. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (De arcanus motus [1676], 203), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 6 | |
A reaction: This is a useful reminder that if one is going to build a metaphysics on powers (which I intend to do), then the conservation laws in physics are highly relevant. |
12734 | Every necessary proposition is demonstrable to someone who understands [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: Every necessary proposition is demonstrable, at least by someone who understands it. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (De arcanus motus [1676], 203), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 6 | |
A reaction: This kind of optimism leads to the crisis of the Hilbert Programme in the 1930s. Gödel seems to have conclusively proved that Leibniz was wrong. What would Leibniz have made of Gödel? |
3449 | If parallelism is true, how does the mind know about the body? [Crease] |
Full Idea: In parallelism, the idea that we have a body is like an astronaut hearing shouting on the moon, and reasoning that as this is impossible he must be simultaneously imagining shouting AND there is real shouting taking place! | |
From: Jason Crease (works [2001]), quoted by PG - Db (ideas) | |
A reaction: This seems to capture the absurdity of Leibniz's proposal. I experience what my brain is doing, but not because my brain is doing it. I would never know if God had made a slight error in setting His two 'clocks'; their accuracy is just a pious hope. |