Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Through the Looking Glass', 'An Ontology of Art' and 'Intro to 2nd ed of Principia Mathematica'

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


3 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / e. Being and nothing
I only wish I had such eyes as to see Nobody! It's as much as I can do to see real people. [Carroll,L]
     Full Idea: "I see nobody on the road," said Alice. - "I only wish I had such eyes," the King remarked. ..."To be able to see Nobody! ...Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people."
     From: Lewis Carroll (C.Dodgson) (Through the Looking Glass [1886], p.189), quoted by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 07.7
     A reaction: [Moore quotes this, inevitably, in a chapter on Hegel] This may be a better candidate for the birth of philosophy of language than Frege's Groundwork.
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / d. Logical atoms
Given all true atomic propositions, in theory every other truth can thereby be deduced [Russell]
     Full Idea: Given all true atomic propositions, together with the fact that they are all, every other true proposition can theoretically be deduced by logical methods.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Intro to 2nd ed of Principia Mathematica [1925], p.xv)
     A reaction: This is evidently his strongest statement of the ideal underlying logical atomism. The atoms were initially sense-date, but then became atomic propositions saying an object has a property.
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 7. Ontology of Art
If paintings could be perfectly duplicated, it would be a multiple art form [Currie, by Bacharach]
     Full Idea: Currie claims that, in principle, all art forms are multiple. A superxerox machine, duplicating a painting molecule by molecule, would show that paintings are singular only contingently.
     From: report of Gregory Currie (An Ontology of Art [1988]) by Sondra Bacharach - Arthur C. Danto 3
     A reaction: This strikes me as correct. An original painting would then have the same status as the manuscript of a poem, giving it an authority, and being moving by its personal contact with the artist. But worth far less than current original paintings.