Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Letters to Johann Bernoulli', 'Vagueness' and 'Resurrecting Biological Essentialism'

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11 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / E. Structures of Logic / 2. Logical Connectives / a. Logical connectives
21597 Logical connectives have the highest precision, yet are infected by the vagueness of true and false [Russell, by Williamson]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / c. Monads
13174 A piece of flint contains something resembling perceptions and appetites [Leibniz]
13175 Entelechies are analogous to souls, as other minds are analogous to our own minds [Leibniz]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 10. Vagueness / d. Vagueness as linguistic
9051 Since natural language is not precise it cannot be in the province of logic [Russell, by Keefe/Smith]
9054 Vagueness is only a characteristic of representations, such as language [Russell]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 10. Essence as Species
17368 Essentialism concerns the nature of a group, not its category [Devitt]
17370 Things that gradually change, like species, can still have essences [Devitt]
10. Modality / D. Knowledge of Modality / 4. Conceivable as Possible / c. Possible but inconceivable
13172 What we cannot imagine may still exist [Leibniz]
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / e. Death
13173 Death is just the contraction of an animal [Leibniz]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species
17369 We name species as small to share properties, but large enough to yield generalisations [Devitt]
17367 Species are phenetic, biological, niche, or phylogenetic-cladistic [Devitt, by PG]