9216
|
Each area of enquiry, and its source, has its own distinctive type of necessity [Fine,K]
|
|
Full Idea:
The three sources of necessity - the identity of things, the natural order, and the normative order - have their own peculiar forms of necessity. The three main areas of human enquiry - metaphysics, science and ethics - each has its own necessity.
|
|
From:
Kit Fine (The Varieties of Necessity [2002], 6)
|
|
A reaction:
I would treat necessity in ethics with caution, if it is not reducible to natural or metaphysical necessity. Fine's proposal is interesting, but I did not find it convincing, especially in its view that metaphysical necessity doesn't intrude into nature.
|
18967
|
A 'proposition' is said to be the timeless cognitive part of the meaning of a sentence [Quine]
|
|
Full Idea:
A 'proposition' is the meaning of a sentence. More precisely, since propositions are supposed to be true or false once and for all, it is the meaning of an eternal sentence. More precisely still, it is the 'cognitive' meaning, involving truth, not poetry.
|
|
From:
Willard Quine (Propositional Objects [1965], p.139)
|
|
A reaction:
Quine defines this in order to attack it. I equate a proposition with a thought, and take a sentence to be an attempt to express a proposition. I have no idea why they are supposed to be 'timeless'. Philosophers have some very odd ideas.
|
18968
|
The problem with propositions is their individuation. When do two sentences express one proposition? [Quine]
|
|
Full Idea:
The trouble with propositions, as cognitive meanings of eternal sentences, is individuation. Given two eternal sentences, themselves visibly different linguistically, it is not sufficiently clear under when to say that they mean the same proposition.
|
|
From:
Willard Quine (Propositional Objects [1965], p.140)
|
|
A reaction:
If a group of people agree that two sentences mean the same thing, which happens all the time, I don't see what gives Quine the right to have a philosophical moan about some dubious activity called 'individuation'.
|
9215
|
Causation is easier to disrupt than logic, so metaphysics is part of nature, not vice versa [Fine,K]
|
|
Full Idea:
It would be harder to break P-and-Q implying P than the connection between cause and effect. This difference in strictness means it is more plausible that natural necessities include metaphysical necessities, than vice versa.
|
|
From:
Kit Fine (The Varieties of Necessity [2002], 6)
|
|
A reaction:
I cannot see any a priori grounds for the claim that causation is more easily disrupted than logic. It seems to be based on the strategy of inferring possibilities from what can be imagined, which seems to me to lead to wild misunderstandings.
|