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All the ideas for 'Leibniz', 'works' and 'Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion'

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5 ideas

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / k. Infinitesimals

18086	Weierstrass eliminated talk of infinitesimals [Weierstrass, by Kitcher]
	Full Idea: Weierstrass effectively eliminated the infinitesimalist language of his predecessors.
	From: report of Karl Weierstrass (works [1855]) by Philip Kitcher - The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge 10.6

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / l. Limits

18092	Weierstrass made limits central, but the existence of limits still needed to be proved [Weierstrass, by Bostock]
	Full Idea: After Weierstrass had stressed the importance of limits, one now needed to be able to prove the existence of such limits.
	From: report of Karl Weierstrass (works [1855]) by David Bostock - Philosophy of Mathematics 4.4
	A reaction: The solution to this is found in work on series (going back to Cauchy), and on Dedekind's cuts.

9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 7. Indiscernible Objects

7566	The Identity of Indiscernibles is really the same as the verification principle [Jolley]
	Full Idea: Various writers have noted that the Identity of Indiscernibles is really tantamount to the verification principle.
	From: Nicholas Jolley (Leibniz [2005], Ch.3)
	A reaction: Both principles are false, because they are the classic confusion of epistemology and ontology. The fact that you cannot 'discern' a difference between two things doesn't mean that there is no difference. Things beyond verification can still be discussed.

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity

21798	To universalise 'give everything to the poor' leads to absurdity [Hegel]
	Full Idea: If everyone gave everything to the poor, then soon there would be no more poor to give anything to, or no more persons who would have anything to give.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion [1827], III: 152), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 10 'Faith'
	A reaction: Matthew 5:8, 19:21. Beautifully clear. [I always believed that I had thought of this idea - but not so]. If the logic is that it is better to be poor than to be rich, then the implication is that all excess wealth should be thrown into the sea.

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / a. Immortality

21797	Immortality does not come at a later time, but when pure knowing Spirit fully grasps the universal [Hegel]
	Full Idea: The immortality of the soul must not be imagined as though it first emerges into actuality at some later time; rather it is a present quality. ...As pure knowing or as thinking, Spirit has the universal for its object - this is eternity.
	From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion [1827], III: 208), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 10 'Death'
	A reaction: An unusual view of immortality, which challenges orthodoxy. The idea seems to be that 'pure knowing' is a grasping of the pure reason which embodies nature, which in turn is the nature of God. You enter eternity, rather than reside in it?