Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Existentialism: an introduction', 'The Laws of Thought' and 'works'

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

14 ideas

1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 2. Phenomenology
20744 Phenomenologists say all experience is about something and is directed [Aho]
     Full Idea: Phenomenologists agree that all experience has an intentional structure, that is, my experience is always about or of something; it is always directed towards an object.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 2 'Phenomenology')
     A reaction: I am just beginning to grasp that the analytic debates about perception are a re-enactment of the Kantian debates about the thing-in-itself. This is the sort of idea you find in McDowell. Presumably the idea denies the Given, and raw sense-data.
4. Formal Logic / B. Propositional Logic PL / 1. Propositional Logic
8083 Boole applied normal algebra to logic, aiming at an algebra of thought [Boole, by Devlin]
     Full Idea: Boole proposed to use the entire apparatus of a school algebra class, with operations such as addition and multiplication, methods to solve equations, and the like, to produce an algebra of thought.
     From: report of George Boole (The Laws of Thought [1854]) by Keith Devlin - Goodbye Descartes Ch.3
     A reaction: The Stoics didn’t use any algebraic notation for their study of propositions, so Boole's idea launched full blown propositional logic, and the rest of modern logic followed. Nice one.
7727 Boole's notation can represent syllogisms and propositional arguments, but not both at once [Boole, by Weiner]
     Full Idea: Boole introduced a new symbolic notation in which it was possible to represent both syllogisms and propositional arguments, ...but not both at once.
     From: report of George Boole (The Laws of Thought [1854], Ch.3) by Joan Weiner - Frege
     A reaction: How important is the development of symbolic notations for the advancement of civilisations? Is there a perfect notation, as used in logical heaven?
5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 2. History of Logic
8686 Boole made logic more mathematical, with algebra, quantifiers and probability [Boole, by Friend]
     Full Idea: Boole (followed by Frege) began to turn logic from a branch of philosophy into a branch of mathematics. He brought an algebraic approach to propositions, and introduced the notion of a quantifier and a type of probabilistic reasoning.
     From: report of George Boole (The Laws of Thought [1854], 3.2) by Michèle Friend - Introducing the Philosophy of Mathematics
     A reaction: The result was that logic not only became more mathematical, but also more specialised. We now have two types of philosopher, those steeped in mathematical logic and the rest. They don't always sing from the same songsheet.
5. Theory of Logic / D. Assumptions for Logic / 2. Excluded Middle
15941 For intuitionists excluded middle is an outdated historical convention [Brouwer]
     Full Idea: From the intuitionist standpoint the dogma of the universal validity of the principle of excluded third in mathematics can only be considered as a phenomenon of history of civilization, like the rationality of pi or rotation of the sky about the earth.
     From: Luitzen E.J. Brouwer (works [1930]), quoted by Shaughan Lavine - Understanding the Infinite VI.2
     A reaction: [Brouwer 1952:510-11]
5. Theory of Logic / H. Proof Systems / 2. Axiomatic Proof
22277 Boole's method was axiomatic, achieving economy, plus multiple interpretations [Boole, by Potter]
     Full Idea: Boole's work was an early example of the axiomatic method, whereby intellectual economy is achieved by studying a set of axioms in which the primitive terms have multiple interpretations.
     From: report of George Boole (The Laws of Thought [1854]) by Michael Potter - The Rise of Analytic Philosophy 1879-1930 02 'Boole'
     A reaction: Unclear about this. I suppose the axioms are just syntactic, and a range of semantic interpretations can be applied. Are De Morgan's Laws interpretations, or implications of the syntactic axioms? The latter, I think.
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / h. Reals from Cauchy
18247 Brouwer saw reals as potential, not actual, and produced by a rule, or a choice [Brouwer, by Shapiro]
     Full Idea: In his early writing, Brouwer took a real number to be a Cauchy sequence determined by a rule. Later he augmented rule-governed sequences with free-choice sequences, but even then the attitude is that Cauchy sequences are potential, not actual infinities.
     From: report of Luitzen E.J. Brouwer (works [1930]) by Stewart Shapiro - Philosophy of Mathematics 6.6
     A reaction: This is the 'constructivist' view of numbers, as espoused by intuitionists like Brouwer.
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 2. Aim of Science
20736 Science has to abstract out the subjective attributes of things, focusing on what is objective [Aho]
     Full Idea: Crucial to the scientific method is the ability to abstract out the subjective qualities that we give to things - such as beauty, meaning, purpose, and value - and focus only on the objective qualities of things, which can be measured and quantified.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 1 'Emergence')
     A reaction: This seems to me exactly right. People who deny the primary/secondary distinction, like Hume, are usually correspondingly pessimistic about science. And Hume was wrong about that.
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 3. Angst
20734 Anxiety, nausea, guilt and absurdity shake us up, revealing our freedom and limits [Aho]
     Full Idea: Some moods, such as 'anxiety' (Heidegger), 'nausea' (Sartre), 'guilt' (Kierkegaard), and 'absurdity' (Camus) are important because they have the capacity to shake us out of complacency and self-deception, disclosing our freedom and finitude.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], Pref 'What?)
     A reaction: [bit compressed] Problem: if I fail to feel such things, and deliberately induce them in myself, am I being inauthentic? Making a huge and unnatural effort to be an existentialist seems all wrong. And who wants the permanent grip of such feelings?
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 5. Existence-Essence
20733 Our 'existence' is how we create ourselves, unconstrained by any prior 'essence' [Aho]
     Full Idea: 'Existence precedes essence' means there is no pre-given 'essence' that determines who and what we are. We are self-making beings.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], Pref 'What?)
     A reaction: This not a yes/no dilemma. Personally I believe (with Aristotle, and Steven Pinker) that there is a fairly comprehensive 'human nature' which we all share, and is the basis of ethics. On top of that, though, a fair bit of 'self-making' can go on.
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self
20753 The self is constituted by its choices made within a social context [Aho]
     Full Idea: The [existential] self is constituted by the continuous, open-ended process of choosing and pulling together the social interpretations that we care about and that are made available by the situation we grow into.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 4 'Self')
     A reaction: These kind of explanations always seem wrong. That the self is influenced and moulded strongly by the choices it makes sounds right. But that the choices 'constitute' the chooser sounds like a bit of a muddle.
24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 2. State Legitimacy / c. Social contract
20738 Social contracts and markets have made society seem disconnected and artificial [Aho]
     Full Idea: Modern society has come to be viewed as something artificial, an aggregate of disconnected individuals that is held together by instrumental social contracts and monetary exchanges.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 1 'Emergence')
     A reaction: This is all long of you, Thomas Hobbes! Aho is explaining the rebellion of existentialists against this - though existentialism strikes me as another variant of liberal individualism.
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity
20737 Protestantism brought the modern emphasis on inner states of the soul [Aho]
     Full Idea: An important development in the formation of the modern worldview was the emergence of Protestantism, that reconfigured the self by privileging the inner states of the soul. Salvation concerns inner feelings, thoughts and desires, which can be genuine.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 1 'Emergence')
     A reaction: [bit compressed] He is preparing the historical background for the existentialist concept of authenticity. We can link this Protestant idea with Descartes's Cogito, which grounds knowledge in the inner self.
29. Religion / C. Spiritual Disciplines / 3. Buddhism
20766 Four Noble Truths: life is suffering, caused by attachment, it is avoidable, there is a path [Aho]
     Full Idea: The teachings of the Buddha are summarised in 'four noble truths': 1) life means suffering, 2) the origin of suffering is attachment, 3) the end of suffering is attainable, and 4) the path to the end of suffering.
     From: Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 9 'dukkha')
     A reaction: 1) and 2) summarise everything I dislike about most eastern philosophy. In the modern world life does not have to be suffering. To break off attachments in order to avoid suffering is a hideous injunction.