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Post 20

Friday, March 7, 2008 - 8:58amSanction this postReply
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#reply to 13

Mathematics has evolved into the discipline/art of systems of structures understood abstractly. It started off with counting and land measurement (Egyptians, Babylonians and Greeks) and it ended up as much more.

It is not a "game". It is essential for dealing with the underlying symmetries and invariants and conserved quantities of nature.* Without abstract mathematics, there would be no quantum field theory, no theory of relativity and all of the other mathematical elaborations that make physics possible.

It seems like a "game" to you because you have not taken the time and effort necessary to understand it. Taking Betrand Russell's characterizations of mathematics seriously is superficial. Study the real stuff. For example, Noether's theorem on symmetries and conserved quantities is the nuclear power plant of advanced physics. Learn enough to appreciated what it is.

If it were not for this "game" you would not have your computer to work with.

Bob Kolker

*the real Axiom of Principle of Identity is bound up with the underlying symmetries and invariants of physical reality. Rand's simplified approach is a mere cartoon this principle.




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Post 21

Friday, March 7, 2008 - 11:01amSanction this postReply
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Bob K.,

 

Without abstract mathematics, there would be no quantum field theory, no theory of relativity and all of the other mathematical elaborations that make physics possible.

 

*the real Axiom of Principle of Identity is bound up with the underlying symmetries and invariants of physical reality. Rand's simplified approach is a mere cartoon this principle.

 

There probably is some valuable work being done in the field of mathematics, despite being rife with invalid concepts, flawed methodology and flimsy epistemological foundations. (This is equally true of the current state of physics.)  Much of it is barren gamesmanship, just as Robert M. said.  The context for his comment was the very prevalent nonsense referenced in prior posts.

 

Your critical comparison of the mathematical axiom of identity to Ayn Rand’s foundational principle confirms my own suspicion that you are the one who has “not taken the time and effort necessary to understand” Objectivism.  No one with an inkling of insight into Objectivist metaphysics would criticize a philosophic axiom for being “simplified” or lacking the complexity you describe (“bound up with the underlying symmetries and invariants of physical reality”). 

 

That’s fine.  No one is suggesting that you not continue posting here.  But the truth of the matter is that your absolute dearth of rudimentary knowledge makes one wonder what your purpose might be.  

 


Post 22

Friday, March 7, 2008 - 1:38pmSanction this postReply
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Here's a relevant quote [caps for italics]:

ITOE, 216
==========
Prof. C: You say that one forms wider concepts by taking lower-level concepts as units. ... I would have liked to see a different phrase used, namely that the wider concepts are formed from THE KNOWLEDGE OF the lower concepts. Because some people, in mathematics for example, take a certain level of abstraction and quit referring to reality thereafter and deal with nothing but the concepts.

AR: That would be psychology, or psychopathology, and I couldn't go into that. That some people would take language improperly--there's no protection against that.
===========

;-)

Ed

Post 23

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 8:00amSanction this postReply
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These are good sources:

 

Non-Classical Logic

Graham Priest (Cambridge University Press 2001)

 

Relevant Logic

Edwin D. Mares (Cambridge University Press 2004)


Post 24

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 10:40amSanction this postReply
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Thanks again for the even-further links, Stephen.

When I get a whole lot of time, I will examine them for the kind of imperfect thinking found in Hanna (and apparently, in yourself, assuming that you take the Existential Fallacy both literally and seriously) which I have already noted.

Ed


Post 25

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - 6:33amSanction this postReply
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More on the concept possible world in modal logic is here.


Post 26

Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 9:20amSanction this postReply
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Selected (chronological) high-quality thinking on "rationality":
 

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Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion ... and the discovery of a standard of judgment.
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--Epictetus (ca. 55-135 A.D.)


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When men are in doubt they always believe what is more agreeable.
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--Flavius Arrianus, 2nd Century, A.D.


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You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not rightly understand.
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--Leonardo Da Vinci, ca. 1500


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There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled.
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--Jean de La Bruyere, 1688


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In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
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--Samuel Johnson, 1750-52


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Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.
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--Thomas Jefferson, 1782


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Large bodies are far more likely to err than individuals. The passions are inflamed by sympathy; and fear of punishment and the sense of shame are diminished by partition.
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--Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1828


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There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is a proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is condemnation before investigation.
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--Herbert Spencer, 1850


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Reason deserves to be called a prophet; for in showing us the consequence and effect of our actions in the present, does it not tell us what the future will be?
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--Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851


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Authority sometimes proceeds from reason, but reason never from authority. For all authority that is not approved by true reason seems weak. But true reason, since it rests on its own strength, needs no reinforcement by any authority.
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--Johannes Scotus Erigena, 1861


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 The maxim of science is simply that of common sense--simple cases first; begin with seeing how the main force acts when there is as little as possible to impede it, and when you thoroughly comprehend that, add to it in succession the separate effects of each of the encumbering and interfering agencies.
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--Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)


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Wisdom don't consist in knowing more that is new, but in knowing less that is false.
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--Josh Billings, 1874


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The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
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--William James, 1890


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 In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat: but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress towards a victory. This is the one great reason for the utmost toleration of a variety of opinion.
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--Alfred North Whitehead, 1925


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The facts to be explained should follow demonstratively from the hypothesis. But this alone is not enough. The implications of the hypothesis must accord not only with the facts in which we happen to be interested, but with all the facts on which it bears.
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--Cecil Alec Mace, 1933


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No one, if pressed, can ultimately be sure that his argument is valid unless he can reduce it to a syllogism; ...
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--Charles Richard Morris, 1933


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[Reason is] a free activity of the mind, reaching conclusions under no compulsion save that of evidence.
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--C.E.M. Joad, 1936


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There are two kinds of fools: one says, "This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better."
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--William Ralph Inge (1860-1954)


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Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
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--Bertrand Russell, 1950


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Careful and correct use of language is a powerful aid to straight thinking, for putting into words precisely what we mean necessitates getting our own minds quite clear on what we mean.
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--William I.B. Beveridge, 1950


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The mark of a truly civilized man is confidence in the strength and security derived from an inquiring mind.
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--Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court Justice, 1951


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 Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as in knowing what to do next.
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--Herbert Clark Hoover, 1958


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Faith means intense, usually confident, belief that is not based on evidence sufficient to command assent from every reasonable person.
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--Walter Kaufmann, 1961


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"Intellectuals," no doubt, are often tiresome enough, because they are often pseudo-intellectuals--ingenious fools too clever to be wise, though brilliant at inventing the most ingenious reasons for their fatuous beliefs.
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--F.L. Lucas (1884-1967)


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It is necessary to evaluate carefully the premises of an ideology and to relate its propositions to reality.
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--Reo M. Christenson, 1975


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Philosophical arguments are not directed against people, but against statements, or theories, or other arguments. All these have been proposed by people, they stand in their own right and are true or false regardless of the personality or character or reliability of their authors.
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--Roger James, 1980


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It is not so much that knowledge is freedom, or that knowledge sets men free, but rather knowing, especially knowing how to know, is freedom and sets men free.
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--Robert E. Lane, 1981


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Empirical thinking leads to a basically objective view of the world, belief leads to a view of the world in which the distinction between objective and subjective is blurred. ... Thus cause is apt to be mistaken for effect, the wish confused with its fulfillment, the symbol with the thing.
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--George Serban, 1982


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There are two threats to reason: the opinion that one knows the truth about the most important things, and the opinion there is no truth about them.
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--Alan Bloom, 1990


Ed


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