3 ideas
10801 | Either reference really matters, or we don't need to replace it with substitutions [Quine] |
Full Idea: When we reconstrue quantification in terms of substituted expressions rather than real values, we waive reference. ...but if reference matters, we cannot afford to waive it as a category; and if it does not, we do not need to. | |
From: Willard Quine (Reply to Professor Marcus [1962], p.183) | |
A reaction: An odd dilemma to pose. Presumably the substitution account is an attempt to explain how language actually works, without mentioning dubious direct ontological commitment in the quantifiers. |
13191 | The properties of a thing flow from its essence [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: It is the same to look for perfection in an essence and in the properties that flow from an essence. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Wolff [1715], 1715.05.18) | |
A reaction: It is helpful to have Leibniz spelling out his commitment to the traditional view of essence, as that from which the more evident properties flow. |
6017 | Nomos is king [Pindar] |
Full Idea: Nomos is king. | |
From: Pindar (poems [c.478 BCE], S 169), quoted by Thomas Nagel - The Philosophical Culture | |
A reaction: This seems to be the earliest recorded shot in the nomos-physis wars (the debate among sophists about moral relativism). It sounds as if it carries the full relativist burden - that all that matters is what has been locally decreed. |