Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Strangest Man', 'Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology' and 'Philosophy of Chemistry'

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25 ideas

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 2. Possibility of Metaphysics
13939 No possible evidence could decide the reality of numbers, so it is a pseudo-question [Carnap]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 6. Logicism / a. Early logicism
13936 Questions about numbers are answered by analysis, and are analytic, and hence logically true [Carnap]
8748 Logical positivists incorporated geometry into logicism, saying axioms are just definitions [Carnap, by Shapiro]
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 4. Abstract Existence
8960 Internal questions about abstractions are trivial, and external ones deeply problematic [Carnap, by Szabó]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 1. Ontologies
13933 Existence questions are 'internal' (within a framework) or 'external' (concerning the whole framework) [Carnap]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality
13934 To be 'real' is to be an element of a system, so we cannot ask reality questions about the system itself [Carnap]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / a. Ontological commitment
13938 A linguistic framework involves commitment to entities, so only commitment to the framework is in question [Carnap]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 6. Nihilism about Objects
13935 We only accept 'things' within a language with formation, testing and acceptance rules [Carnap]
12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 1. Empiricism
13932 Empiricists tend to reject abstract entities, and to feel sympathy with nominalism [Carnap]
12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 3. Pragmatism
13937 New linguistic claims about entities are not true or false, but just expedient, fruitful or successful [Carnap]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 3. Instrumentalism
13940 All linguistic forms in science are merely judged by their efficiency as instruments [Carnap]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / i. Explanations by mechanism
17471 Using mechanisms as explanatory schemes began in chemistry [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
17472 Thick mechanisms map whole reactions, and thin mechanism chart the steps [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / f. Ancient elements
17465 Lavoisier's elements included four types of earth [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / d. Gravity
21236 Instead of gravitational force, we now have a pervasive gravitational field [Farmelo]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 2. Electrodynamics / d. Quantum mechanics
21235 The Schrödinger waves are just the maths of transforming energy values to positions [Farmelo]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 4. Standard Model / c. Particle properties
21234 Experiments show that fundamental particles of one type are identical [Farmelo]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 1. Chemistry
17468 Over 100,000,000 compounds have been discovered or synthesised [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
17470 Water molecules dissociate, and form large polymers, explaining its properties [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
17473 It is unlikely that chemistry will ever be reduced to physics [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
17474 Quantum theory won't tell us which structure a set of atoms will form [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
17475 For temperature to be mean kinetic energy, a state of equilibrium is also required [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
17469 'H2O' just gives the element proportions, not the microstructure [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 2. Modern Elements
17467 Isotopes (such as those of hydrogen) can vary in their rates of chemical reaction [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 3. Periodic Table
17466 Mendeleev systematised the elements, and also gave an account of their nature [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry]