Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Merely Possible Propositions' and 'Types and Ontology'

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4 ideas

7. Existence / E. Categories / 1. Categories
13127 Categories can't overlap; they are either disjoint, or inclusive [Sommers, by Westerhoff]
     Full Idea: Fred Sommers, in his treatment of types, says that two ontological categories cannot overlap; they are either disjoint, or one properly includes the other. This is sometimes referred to as Sommers' Law.
     From: report of Fred Sommers (Types and Ontology [1963], p.355) by Jan Westerhoff - Ontological Categories §24
     A reaction: The 'types', of course, go back to Bertrand Russell's theory of types, which is important in discussions of ontological categories. Carnap pursued it, trying to derive ontological categories from grammatical categories. 85% agree with Sommers.
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 4. Impossible objects
14617 Predicates can't apply to what doesn't exist [Stalnaker]
     Full Idea: Nothing can be predicated of something which does not exist.
     From: Robert C. Stalnaker (Merely Possible Propositions [2010], p.28)
     A reaction: [He says he is 'agreeing with Plantinga' on this] This seems very puzzling, as you can obviously say that dragons do not exist, but they breathe fire. Why can't you attach predicates to hypothetical objects?
19. Language / D. Propositions / 3. Concrete Propositions
14616 A 'Russellian proposition' is an ordered sequence of individual, properties and relations [Stalnaker]
     Full Idea: A 'Russellian proposition' is an ordered sequence containing the individual, along with properties and relations.
     From: Robert C. Stalnaker (Merely Possible Propositions [2010], p.22)
     A reaction: Since Russell took properties and relations to be features of reality, this made the whole proposition a feature of reality. This is utterly different from what I understand by the word 'proposition', which is a feature of thought, not of the world.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues
7903 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').