Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Isagoge ('Introduction')', 'Lecture on Applicability of Mathematics' and 'Zettel'

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5 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
A philosopher is outside any community of ideas [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas; that is what makes him a philosopher.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Zettel [1950], 455)
     A reaction: A bit surprising from the man who gave us 'language games' and 'private language argument'.
5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 6. Paradoxes in Language / a. The Liar paradox
'This sentence is false' sends us in a looping search for its proposition [Wittgenstein, by Fogelin]
     Full Idea: According to Wittgenstein, 'this sentence is false' sends us off on an endless, looping search for the proposition to be evaluated.
     From: report of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Zettel [1950], §691) by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason Ch.2
     A reaction: Fogelin quotes this as one possible strategy for dealing with the Liar Paradox. It doesn't sound like much of a solution to the paradox, merely an account of why it is so annoying. Wittgenstein's challenge is that the Cretan can't state his problem.
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 4. Mathematical Empiricism / b. Indispensability of mathematics
It is spooky the way mathematics anticipates physics [Weinberg]
     Full Idea: It is positively spooky how the physicist finds the mathematician has been there before him or her.
     From: Steven Weinberg (Lecture on Applicability of Mathematics [1986], p.725), quoted by Stewart Shapiro - Thinking About Mathematics 2.3
     A reaction: This suggests that mathematics might be the study of possibilities or hypotheticals, like mental rehearsals for physics. See Hellman's modal structuralism. Maybe mathematicians are reading the mind of God, but I doubt that.
8. Modes of Existence / D. Universals / 1. Universals
Are genera and species real or conceptual? bodies or incorporeal? in sensibles or separate from them? [Porphyry]
     Full Idea: I shall beg off talking of a) whether genera and species are real or situated in bare thoughts alone, b) whether as real they are bodies or incorporeals, and c) whether they are separated or in sensibles and have their reality in connection with them.
     From: Porphyry (Isagoge ('Introduction') [c.295], (2))
     A reaction: This passage, picking up on Aristotle, seems to be the original source that grew into the medievel debate about universals. It seems to rather neatly lay out the agenda for the universals debate which is still with us.
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 2. Causal Justification
Causes of beliefs are irrelevant to their contents [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: The causes of our belief in a proposition are indeed irrelevant to the question of what we believe.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Zettel [1950], i.437)
     A reaction: This should have nipped the causal theory of knowledge in the bud before it got started. Everyone has a different cause for their belief that 'it sometimes rains'. Cause is not justification.