Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Intros to Russell's 'Essays in Analysis'' and 'Against Euthanasia'

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5 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 5. Paradoxes in Set Theory / b. Cantor's paradox
Sets always exceed terms, so all the sets must exceed all the sets [Lackey]
     Full Idea: Cantor proved that the number of sets in a collection of terms is larger than the number of terms. Hence Cantor's Paradox says the number of sets in the collection of all sets must be larger than the number of sets in the collection of all sets.
     From: Douglas Lackey (Intros to Russell's 'Essays in Analysis' [1973], p.127)
     A reaction: The sets must count as terms in the next iteration, but that is a normal application of the Power Set axiom.
5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 5. Paradoxes in Set Theory / c. Burali-Forti's paradox
It seems that the ordinal number of all the ordinals must be bigger than itself [Lackey]
     Full Idea: The ordinal series is well-ordered and thus has an ordinal number, and a series of ordinals to a given ordinal exceeds that ordinal by 1. So the series of all ordinals has an ordinal number that exceeds its own ordinal number by 1.
     From: Douglas Lackey (Intros to Russell's 'Essays in Analysis' [1973], p.127)
     A reaction: Formulated by Burali-Forti in 1897.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues
The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
     Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
     From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
     A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 2. Euthanasia
We only allow voluntary euthanasia to someone who is both sane and crazed by pain [Kamisar]
     Full Idea: It seems that voluntary euthanasia can only be carried out by someone who is both sane, and crazed by pain.
     From: Yale Kamisar (Against Euthanasia [1958], p.77)
     A reaction: A fair point, despite its obvious exaggeration. How much pain must someone experience before we permit them to choose euthanasia?
People will volunteer for euthanasia because they think other people want them dead [Kamisar]
     Full Idea: In the process of voluntary euthanasia we will sweep up some who are not really tired of life, but think others are tired of them.
     From: Yale Kamisar (Against Euthanasia [1958], p.78)
     A reaction: We could permit such choices. Or set up systems to eliminate such cases.