Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Value of Science', 'Chemistry' and 'What are Sets and What are they For?'

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22 ideas

4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / b. Empty (Null) Set
14239 The empty set is usually derived from Separation, but it also seems to need Infinity [Oliver/Smiley]
14240 The empty set is something, not nothing! [Oliver/Smiley]
14241 We don't need the empty set to express non-existence, as there are other ways to do that [Oliver/Smiley]
14242 Maybe we can treat the empty set symbol as just meaning an empty term [Oliver/Smiley]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / c. Unit (Singleton) Sets
14243 The unit set may be needed to express intersections that leave a single member [Oliver/Smiley]
5. Theory of Logic / G. Quantification / 6. Plural Quantification
14234 If you only refer to objects one at a time, you need sets in order to refer to a plurality [Oliver/Smiley]
14237 We can use plural language to refer to the set theory domain, to avoid calling it a 'set' [Oliver/Smiley]
5. Theory of Logic / I. Semantics of Logic / 3. Logical Truth
14245 Logical truths are true no matter what exists - but predicate calculus insists that something exists [Oliver/Smiley]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / g. Applying mathematics
14246 If mathematics purely concerned mathematical objects, there would be no applied mathematics [Oliver/Smiley]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 6. Mathematics as Set Theory / a. Mathematics is set theory
14247 Sets might either represent the numbers, or be the numbers, or replace the numbers [Oliver/Smiley]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / c. Significance of supervenience
17486 Supervenience is simply modally robust property co-variance [Hendry]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / k. Explanations by essence
17481 Nuclear charge (plus laws) explains electron structure and spectrum, but not vice versa [Hendry]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 2. Defining Kinds
17478 Maybe two kinds are the same if there is no change of entropy on isothermal mixing [Hendry]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / a. Scientific essentialism
17484 Maybe the nature of water is macroscopic, and not in the microstructure [Hendry]
17479 The nature of an element must survive chemical change, so it is the nucleus, not the electrons [Hendry]
17485 Maybe water is the smallest part of it that still counts as water (which is H2O molecules) [Hendry]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 11. Against Laws of Nature
15877 The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts [Poincaré, by Harré]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 1. Chemistry
17482 Compounds can differ with the same collection of atoms, so structure matters too [Hendry]
17483 Water continuously changes, with new groupings of molecules [Hendry]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 2. Modern Elements
17476 Elements survive chemical change, and are tracked to explain direction and properties [Hendry]
17477 Defining elements by atomic number allowed atoms of an element to have different masses [Hendry]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 3. Periodic Table
17480 Generally it is nuclear charge (not nuclear mass) which determines behaviour [Hendry]