Combining Texts

All the ideas for '04: Gospel of St John', 'Reply to Foucher' and 'Realism, Mathematics and Modality'

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4 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 2. Logos

6294	In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God [John]
	Full Idea: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.
	From: St John (04: Gospel of St John [c.95], 01.01)
	A reaction: 'Word' translates the Greek word 'logos', which has come a long way since Heraclitus. The interesting contrast is with the later Platonist view that the essence of God is the Good. So is the source of everything to be found in reason, or in value?

3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 2. Defining Truth

8821	Jesus said he bore witness to the truth. Pilate asked, What is truth? [John]
	Full Idea: Jesus: I came into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?
	From: St John (04: Gospel of St John [c.95], 18:37-8)
	A reaction: There is very little explicit discussion of truth in philosophy before this exchange (apart from Ideas 251 and 586), and there isn't any real debate prior to Russell and the pragmatists. What was Pilate's tone? Did he spit at the end of his question?

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / d. Actual infinite

19406	I strongly believe in the actual infinite, which indicates the perfections of its author [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: I am so much for the actual infinite that instead of admitting that nature abhors it, as is commonly said, I hold that it affects nature everywhere in order to indicate the perfections of its author.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (Reply to Foucher [1693], p.99)
	A reaction: I would have thought that, for Leibniz, while infinities indicate the perfections of their author, that is not the reason why they exist. God wasn't, presumably, showing off. Leibniz does not think we can actually know these infinities.

6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 9. Fictional Mathematics

8714	Fictionalists say 2+2=4 is true in the way that 'Oliver Twist lived in London' is true [Field,H]
	Full Idea: The fictionalist can say that the sense in which '2+2=4' is true is pretty much the same as the sense in which 'Oliver Twist lived in London' is true. They are true 'according to a well-known story', or 'according to standard mathematics'.
	From: Hartry Field (Realism, Mathematics and Modality [1989], 1.1.1), quoted by Michèle Friend - Introducing the Philosophy of Mathematics 6.3
	A reaction: The roots of this idea are in Carnap. Fictionalism strikes me as brilliant, but poisonous in large doses. Novels can aspire to artistic truth, or to documentary truth. We invent a fiction, and nudge it slowly towards reality.