Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Merely Possible Propositions' and 'Positivism and Realism'

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

---

4 ideas

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 7. Against Metaphysics

13737	The empiricist says that metaphysics is meaningless, rather than false [Schlick]
	Full Idea: The empiricist does not say to the metaphysician 'what you say is false', but 'what you say asserts nothing at all!' He does not contradict him, but says 'I don't understand you'.
	From: Moritz Schlick (Positivism and Realism [1934], p.107), quoted by Jonathan Schaffer - On What Grounds What 1.1
	A reaction: I take metaphysics to be meaningful, but at such a high level of abstraction that it is easy to drift into vague nonsense, and incredibly hard to assess what is meant, and whether it is correct. The truths of metaphysics are not recursive.

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').