Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action', 'Plato on Parts and Wholes' and 'A Structural Account of Mathematics'

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26 ideas

2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 7. Ad Hominem
15842 An ad hominem refutation is reasonable, if it uses the opponent's assumptions [Harte,V]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / b. Empty (Null) Set
9572 Realists about sets say there exists a null set in the real world, with no members [Chihara]
9550 We only know relational facts about the empty set, but nothing intrinsic [Chihara]
9562 In simple type theory there is a hierarchy of null sets [Chihara]
9573 The null set is a structural position which has no other position in membership relation [Chihara]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / c. Unit (Singleton) Sets
9551 What is special about Bill Clinton's unit set, in comparison with all the others? [Chihara]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 5. Conceptions of Set / a. Sets as existing
9549 The set theorist cannot tell us what 'membership' is [Chihara]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 7. Natural Sets
9571 ZFU refers to the physical world, when it talks of 'urelements' [Chihara]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 8. Critique of Set Theory
9563 A pack of wolves doesn't cease when one member dies [Chihara]
4. Formal Logic / G. Formal Mereology / 1. Mereology
15841 Mereology began as a nominalist revolt against the commitments of set theory [Harte,V]
5. Theory of Logic / E. Structures of Logic / 6. Relations in Logic
9561 The mathematics of relations is entirely covered by ordered pairs [Chihara]
5. Theory of Logic / K. Features of Logics / 2. Consistency
9552 Sentences are consistent if they can all be true; for Frege it is that no contradiction can be deduced [Chihara]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 3. Axioms for Geometry
9553 Analytic geometry gave space a mathematical structure, which could then have axioms [Chihara]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / c. Nominalist structuralism
10192 We can replace existence of sets with possibility of constructing token sentences [Chihara, by MacBride]
7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 1. Nature of Change
15858 Traditionally, the four elements are just what persists through change [Harte,V]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / e. Ontological commitment problems
9559 If a successful theory confirms mathematics, presumably a failed theory disconfirms it? [Chihara]
9566 No scientific explanation would collapse if mathematical objects were shown not to exist [Chihara]
9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 6. Constitution of an Object
15848 Mereology treats constitution as a criterion of identity, as shown in the axiom of extensionality [Harte,V]
9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 8. Parts of Objects / b. Sums of parts
15837 What exactly is a 'sum', and what exactly is 'composition'? [Harte,V]
15839 If something is 'more than' the sum of its parts, is the extra thing another part, or not? [Harte,V]
15838 The problem with the term 'sum' is that it is singular [Harte,V]
18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 7. Abstracta by Equivalence
9568 I prefer the open sentences of a Constructibility Theory, to Platonist ideas of 'equivalence classes' [Chihara]
19. Language / B. Reference / 3. Direct Reference / b. Causal reference
9547 Mathematical entities are causally inert, so the causal theory of reference won't work for them [Chihara]
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism
15677 Moral right is linked to validity and truth, so morality is a matter of knowledge, not an expression of values [Habermas, by Finlayson]
23. Ethics / B. Contract Ethics / 9. Contractualism
15671 Move from individual willing of a general law, to willing norms agreed with other people [Habermas]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 4. Standard Model / a. Concept of matter
9574 'Gunk' is an individual possessing no parts that are atoms [Chihara]