Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Disorder of Things', 'First-Order Logic' and 'Five Milestones of Empiricism'

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30 ideas

2. Reason / D. Definition / 7. Contextual Definition
19048 Contextual definition shifted the emphasis from words to whole sentences [Quine]
19047 Bentham's contextual definitions preserved terms after their denotation became doubtful [Quine]
5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 1. Overview of Logic
10282 Logic is the study of sound argument, or of certain artificial languages (or applying the latter to the former) [Hodges,W]
5. Theory of Logic / I. Semantics of Logic / 1. Semantics of Logic
10283 A formula needs an 'interpretation' of its constants, and a 'valuation' of its variables [Hodges,W]
10284 There are three different standard presentations of semantics [Hodges,W]
10285 I |= φ means that the formula φ is true in the interpretation I [Hodges,W]
5. Theory of Logic / J. Model Theory in Logic / 3. Löwenheim-Skolem Theorems
10288 Down Löwenheim-Skolem: if a countable language has a consistent theory, that has a countable model [Hodges,W]
10289 Up Löwenheim-Skolem: if infinite models, then arbitrarily large models [Hodges,W]
5. Theory of Logic / K. Features of Logics / 6. Compactness
10287 If a first-order theory entails a sentence, there is a finite subset of the theory which entails it [Hodges,W]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 6. Mathematics as Set Theory / a. Mathematics is set theory
10286 A 'set' is a mathematically well-behaved class [Hodges,W]
7. Existence / E. Categories / 1. Categories
17377 All descriptive language is classificatory [Dupré]
7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation
17376 We should aim for a classification which tells us as much as possible about the object [Dupré]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 8. Essence as Explanatory
17390 Natural kinds don't need essentialism to be explanatory [Dupré]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 10. Essence as Species
17389 A species might have its essential genetic mechanism replaced by a new one [Dupré]
17388 It seems that species lack essential properties, so they can't be natural kinds [Dupré]
12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 1. Empiricism
19049 In scientific theories sentences are too brief to be independent vehicles of empirical meaning [Quine]
19046 Empiricism improvements: words for ideas, then sentences, then systems, then no analytic, then naturalism [Quine]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 4. Prediction
17374 The possibility of prediction rests on determinism [Dupré]
18. Thought / C. Content / 5. Twin Earth
17378 Presumably molecular structure seems important because we never have the Twin Earth experience [Dupré]
19. Language / E. Analyticity / 4. Analytic/Synthetic Critique
19050 Holism in language blurs empirical synthetic and empty analytic sentences [Quine]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 1. Natural Kinds
17381 Phylogenetics involves history, and cladism rests species on splits in lineage [Dupré]
17385 Kinds don't do anything (including evolve) because they are abstract [Dupré]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 7. Critique of Kinds
17375 Natural kinds are decided entirely by the intentions of our classification [Dupré]
17379 Borders between species are much less clear in vegetables than among animals [Dupré]
17384 Even atoms of an element differ, in the energy levels of their electrons [Dupré]
17387 Ecologists favour classifying by niche, even though that can clash with genealogy [Dupré]
17382 Cooks, unlike scientists, distinguish garlic from onions [Dupré]
17380 Wales may count as fish [Dupré]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species
17383 Species are the lowest-level classification in biology [Dupré]
17386 The theory of evolution is mainly about species [Dupré]