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; Philosophical Notes
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#CROM. Critical Reflection On Method|CROM. Critical Reflection On Method]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#DIEP. De In Esse Predication|DIEP. De In Esse Predication]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction|HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#JITL. Just In Time Logic|JITL. Just In Time Logic]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia|NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#OLOD. Quine On The Limits Of Decision|OLOD. Quine On The Limits Of Decision]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#POLA. Philosophy Of Logical Atomism|POLA. Philosophy Of Logical Atomism]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#RTOK. Russell's Theory Of Knowledge|RTOK. Russell's Theory Of Knowledge]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#RTOP. Russell's Treatise On Propositions|RTOP. Russell's Treatise On Propositions]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#SABI. Synthetic/Analytic ≟ Boundary/Interior|SABI. Synthetic/Analytic ≟ Boundary/Interior]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#SYNF. Syntactic Fallacy|SYNF. Syntactic Fallacy]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#TDOE. Quine's Two Dogmas Of Empiricism|TDOE. Quine's Two Dogmas Of Empiricism]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories|VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#VOOP. Varieties Of Ontology Project|VOOP. Varieties Of Ontology Project]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#VORE. Varieties Of Recalcitrant Experience|VORE. Varieties Of Recalcitrant Experience]]
: [[User:Jon Awbrey/Philosophical Notes#Document Histories|Document Histories]]
==CROM. Critical Reflection On Method==
==CROM. Critical Reflection On Method==
|}
|}
<p>Charles Sanders Peirce (1905), “What Pragmatism Is”, ''The Monist'' 15, 161–181. Reprinted, ''Collected Papers'', CP 5.411—437.</p>
<p>Charles Sanders Peirce (1905), “What Pragmatism Is”, ''The Monist'' 15, 161–181. Reprinted, ''Collected Papers'', CP 5.411–437.</p>
==DIEP. De In Esse Predication==
==DIEP. De In Esse Predication==
===Note 1===
===DIEP. Note 1===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 2===
===DIEP. Note 2===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 3===
===DIEP. Note 3===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 4===
===DIEP. Note 4===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 5===
===DIEP. Note 5===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 6===
===DIEP. Note 6===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 7===
===DIEP. Note 7===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 8===
===DIEP. Note 8===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 9===
===DIEP. Note 9===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 10===
===DIEP. Note 10===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 11===
===DIEP. Note 11===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 12===
===DIEP. Note 12===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 13===
===DIEP. Note 13===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 14===
===DIEP. Note 14===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 15===
===DIEP. Note 15===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 16===
===DIEP. Note 16===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 17===
===DIEP. Note 17===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 18===
===DIEP. Note 18===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 19===
===DIEP. Note 19===
<pre>
<pre>
</pre>
</pre>
===Note 20===
===DIEP. Note 20===
* CP 2.418
==DIEP. De In Esse Predication • Discussion==
===Work Area===
===DIEP. Discussion Note 1===
<pre>
<pre>
Re: CP 3.441
GR: given that two paragraphs later, Peirce writes:
| if the Devil were elected president of the United States, it would prove
| highly conducive to the spiritual welfare of the people (because he will
| not be elected), yet both Professor Schröder and I prefer to build the
| algebra of relatives upon this conception of the conditional proposition.
GR: and given the bizarre situation that the devil HAS been
elected President of the United States, what does this
say about Peirce's or Schroder's logic, especially in
its esthetical and ethical presuppositions?
JA: he means that if the name on the ballot were "The Devil",
the people would not thus knowingly elect him. of course,
putting his real name on the ballot would be the last thing
that the Devil would do.
JA: but hey, don't read ahead,
it'll spoil the surprise.
GR: Most interesting interpretation.
GR: Yes, I certainly try not to "spoil the surprise".
JA: of course, none of this applies in california ...
JA: With that last bit (CP 3.442) on the "state of information" (SOI)
in the mix, I guess that I can now follow-up without letting any
more categories out of the bag -- there are only three after all --
Peirce's simplex faith in the democratic process is conditioned,
simplexly or otherwise, on the evidently inessential contingency
of a "liberally informed electorate" (LIE).
</pre>
===DIEP. Discussion Note 2===
<pre>
CSP = C.S. Peirce
JA = Jon Awbrey
BM = Bernard Morand
CSP: | [A Boolian Algebra With One Constant] (cont.)
|
| To express the proposition: "If S then P",
| first write:
|
| A
|
| for this proposition. But the proposition
| is that a certain conceivable state of things
| is absent from the universe of possibility.
| Hence instead of A we write:
|
| B B
BM: All was going right till there for me.
CSP: | Then B expresses the possibility of S being true and P false.
BM: Now, I am stopped. May be there is an intermediary
implicit proposition that I am not seeing? If yes
BM: Now, I am stopped. May be there is an intermediary
implicit proposition that I am not seeing? If yes
which one? This could be of interest to Gary too:
which one? This could be of interest to Gary too:
I guess that for the whole passage the elements
I guess that for the whole passage the elements
Voila!
Voila!
</pre>
DIEP. Discussion Note 3
===DIEP. Discussion Note 3===
<pre>
JA = Jon Awbrey
JA = Jon Awbrey
discover the quantum of truth in the sign "physical causality".
discover the quantum of truth in the sign "physical causality".
</pre>
DIEP. Discussion Note 4
===DIEP. Discussion Note 4===
<pre>
JA = Jon Awbrey
JA = Jon Awbrey
http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/library/bycsp/fixation/fx-frame.htm
http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/library/bycsp/fixation/fx-frame.htm
</pre>
DIEP. Discussion Note 5
===DIEP. Discussion Note 5===
<pre>
GR = Gary Richmond
GR = Gary Richmond
That's all I can remember at the moment ...
That's all I can remember at the moment ...
</pre>
DIEP. Discussion Note 6
===DIEP. Discussion Note 6===
<pre>
JA = Jon Awbrey
JA = Jon Awbrey
I will pick up from there next time.
I will pick up from there next time.
</pre>
DIEP. Discussion Note 7
===DIEP. Discussion Note 7===
<pre>
BM = Bernard Morand
BM = Bernard Morand
http://www.louvre.fr/img/photos/collec/ager/grande/ma0399.jpg
http://www.louvre.fr/img/photos/collec/ager/grande/ma0399.jpg
</pre>
</pre>
==HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction==
==DIEP. De In Esse Predication • Work Area==
<pre>
<pre>
01. 1880, CP 4.12
02. 1880, CP 4.13
03. 1880, CP 4.14
04. 1896, CP 3.440
05. 1896, CP 3.441
06. 1896, CP 3.442
07. 1896, CP 3.443
08. 1896, CP 3.444-445
09. 1885, CP 3.374
10. 1902, CP 2.323
11. 1895, CP 2.356
12. 1903, CP 4.517
13. 1903, CP 3.606-608
14. 1897, CP 3.526
15. 1897, CP 3.527
16. 1897, CP 3.527
17. ????, CP 2.361
18. 1908, CP 3.527 note
19. 1867, 1.559
20.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
| When we have analyzed a proposition so as to throw into the subject everything
1.559 x
| that can be removed from the predicate, all that it remains for the predicate to
| represent is the form of connection between the different subjects as expressed in
2.323 x
| the propositional 'form'. What I mean by "everything that can be removed from the
2.347-349
| predicate" is best explained by giving an example of something not so removable.
2.356 x
| But first take something removable. "Cain kills Abel." Here the predicate
2.361 x
2.382
2.394
2.407-409
2.418
2.546
2.
323
348
349
546
2.
231
250
260
293
364
409
416
418
418n
3.374 x
3.375
3.382
3.384 Peirce's Law
3.440-445 x
3.446-448
3.526-527 x
3.606-608 x
4.12-14 x
4.21
4.49
4.372-376
4.401
4.454
4.514-523
4.517 x
4.520
4.564
6.450
</pre>
==HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction==
===HAPA. Note 1===
<pre>
| When we have analyzed a proposition so as to throw into the subject everything
| that can be removed from the predicate, all that it remains for the predicate to
| represent is the form of connection between the different subjects as expressed in
| the propositional 'form'. What I mean by "everything that can be removed from the
| predicate" is best explained by giving an example of something not so removable.
| But first take something removable. "Cain kills Abel." Here the predicate
| appears as "--- kills ---." But we can remove killing from the predicate
| appears as "--- kills ---." But we can remove killing from the predicate
| and make the latter "--- stands in the relation --- to ---." Suppose we
| and make the latter "--- stands in the relation --- to ---." Suppose we
| of Chance)', Edited with an Introduction and Notes by
| of Chance)', Edited with an Introduction and Notes by
| Philip P. Wiener, Dover, New York, NY, 1966.
| Philip P. Wiener, Dover, New York, NY, 1966.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 2===
HAPA. Note 2
<pre>
| Another characteristic of mathematical thought is the extraordinary
| Another characteristic of mathematical thought is the extraordinary
| use it makes of abstractions. Abstractions have been a favorite
| use it makes of abstractions. Abstractions have been a favorite
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.234, "The Simplest Mathematics",
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.234, "The Simplest Mathematics",
| Chapter 3 of the "Minute Logic", Jan-Feb 1902.
| Chapter 3 of the "Minute Logic", Jan-Feb 1902.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 3===
HAPA. Note 3
<pre>
| Look through the modern logical treatises, and you will find that they
| Look through the modern logical treatises, and you will find that they
| almost all fall into one or other of two errors, as I hold them to be;
| almost all fall into one or other of two errors, as I hold them to be;
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.235, "The Simplest Mathematics",
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.235, "The Simplest Mathematics",
| Chapter 3 of the "Minute Logic", Jan-Feb 1902.
| Chapter 3 of the "Minute Logic", Jan-Feb 1902.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 4===
HAPA. Note 4
<pre>
| Abstractions are particularly congenial to mathematics. Everyday life
| Abstractions are particularly congenial to mathematics. Everyday life
| first, for example, found the need of that class of abstractions which
| first, for example, found the need of that class of abstractions which
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.235, "The Simplest Mathematics",
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.235, "The Simplest Mathematics",
| Chapter 3 of the "Minute Logic", Jan-Feb 1902.
| Chapter 3 of the "Minute Logic", Jan-Feb 1902.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 5===
HAPA. Note 5
<pre>
| Hypostasis. Literally the Greek word signifies that which stands under
| Hypostasis. Literally the Greek word signifies that which stands under
| and serves as a support. In philosophy it means a singular substance,
| and serves as a support. In philosophy it means a singular substance,
| Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), 'Dictionary of Philosophy',
| Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), 'Dictionary of Philosophy',
| Littlefield, Adams, & Company, Totowa, NJ, 1972.
| Littlefield, Adams, & Company, Totowa, NJ, 1972.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 6===
HAPA. Note 6
<pre>
| But the highest kind of synthesis is what the mind is compelled to make neither
| But the highest kind of synthesis is what the mind is compelled to make neither
| by the inward attractions of the feelings or representations themselves, nor by
| by the inward attractions of the feelings or representations themselves, nor by
| C.S. Peirce, CP 1.383, "A Guess at the Riddle",
| C.S. Peirce, CP 1.383, "A Guess at the Riddle",
| circa 1890, 'Collected Papers', CP 1.354-416.
| circa 1890, 'Collected Papers', CP 1.354-416.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 7===
HAPA. Note 7
<pre>
| Exceedingly important are the relatives signifying "-- is a quality of --"
| Exceedingly important are the relatives signifying "-- is a quality of --"
| and "-- is a relation of -- to --". It may be said that mathematical
| and "-- is a relation of -- to --". It may be said that mathematical
|'The Monist', vol. 7, pp. 161-217, 1897.
|'The Monist', vol. 7, pp. 161-217, 1897.
|'Collected Papers', CP 3.456-552.
|'Collected Papers', CP 3.456-552.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 8===
HAPA. Note 8
<pre>
| The logical term 'subjectal abstraction' here requires a
| The logical term 'subjectal abstraction' here requires a
| word of explanation; for there are few treatises on logic
| word of explanation; for there are few treatises on logic
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.332, "Ordinals", circa 1905.
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.332, "Ordinals", circa 1905.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 9===
HAPA. Note 9
<pre>
| Predicate.
| Predicate.
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, 'Collected Papers', CP 2.358, in dictionary entry for "Predicate",
| C.S. Peirce, 'Collected Papers', CP 2.358, in dictionary entry for "Predicate",
| J.M. Baldwin (ed.), 'Dictionary of Philosophy & Psychology', vol. 2, pp. 325-326.
| J.M. Baldwin (ed.), 'Dictionary of Philosophy & Psychology', vol. 2, pp. 325-326.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 10===
HAPA. Note 10
<pre>
| Relatives Of Second Intention
| Relatives Of Second Intention
|
|
|"The Logic of Relatives", 'Monist', vol. 7,
|"The Logic of Relatives", 'Monist', vol. 7,
| pp. 161-217, 1897.
| pp. 161-217, 1897.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 11===
HAPA. Note 11
<pre>
| Relatives Of Second Intention (cont.)
| Relatives Of Second Intention (cont.)
|
|
|"The Logic of Relatives", 'The Monist', vol. 7,
|"The Logic of Relatives", 'The Monist', vol. 7,
| pp. 161-217, 1897.
| pp. 161-217, 1897.
</pre>
===HAPA. Note 12===
HAPA. Note 12
<pre>
| One branch of deductive logic, of which from the nature of
| One branch of deductive logic, of which from the nature of
| things ordinary logic could give no satisfactory account,
| things ordinary logic could give no satisfactory account,
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Hom.+Il.+1.172
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Hom.+Il.+1.172
</pre>
==HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction • Discussion==
HAPA. Note 13
===HAPA. Discussion Note 1===
<pre>
Referring to a few of Peirce's standard discussions
Referring to a few of Peirce's standard discussions
of "hypostatic abstraction" (HA), the main thing
of "hypostatic abstraction" (HA), the main thing
reaction, as it were, precipitating out the substantive "sweetness" as a
reaction, as it were, precipitating out the substantive "sweetness" as a
new subject of the new predicate.
new subject of the new predicate.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 2===
HAPA. Discussion Note 2
<pre>
Abstractions And Their Deciduation Problems
Abstractions And Their Deciduation Problems
| 4th ed., reprinted in 'Fruit Key and Twig Key to Trees and Shrubs',
| 4th ed., reprinted in 'Fruit Key and Twig Key to Trees and Shrubs',
| Dover, New York, NY, 1959. Originally published by the author 1954.
| Dover, New York, NY, 1959. Originally published by the author 1954.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 3===
HAPA. Discussion Note 3
<pre>
I think that it would be useful at this time to run back through
I think that it would be useful at this time to run back through
one of Peirce's best descriptions of the two kinds of abstraction,
one of Peirce's best descriptions of the two kinds of abstraction,
|
|
| http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05091.html
| http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05091.html
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 4===
HAPA. Discussion Note 4
<pre>
By way of starting to compile a "key to abstractions and relatives"
By way of starting to compile a "key to abstractions and relatives"
in the spirit of an old-fashioned field study key, I have gone back
in the spirit of an old-fashioned field study key, I have gone back
of interpretation that gives them those meanings and
of interpretation that gives them those meanings and
those specifications.
those specifications.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 5===
HAPA. Discussion Note 5
<pre>
BM = Bernard Morand
BM = Bernard Morand
BM: Thanks for throwing some light on this if possible.
BM: Thanks for throwing some light on this if possible.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 6===
HAPA. Discussion Note 6
<pre>
BM = Bernard Morand
BM = Bernard Morand
And thank you for a very peirceptive set of questions.
And thank you for a very peirceptive set of questions.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 7===
HAPA. Discussion Note 7
<pre>
I will pick up from where I left off with Peirce's "sweetness and light"
I will pick up from where I left off with Peirce's "sweetness and light"
example, illustrating the difference between prescisive abstraction and
example, illustrating the difference between prescisive abstraction and
In category theory, perspectival changes involve the concepts
In category theory, perspectival changes involve the concepts
of "functors" and of "natural transformations" between them.
of "functors" and of "natural transformations" between them.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 8===
HAPA. Discussion Note 8
<pre>
JA = Jon Awbrey
JA = Jon Awbrey
JS = John Sowa
JS = John Sowa
JS: This example highlights the importance of language in abstraction.
JS: This example highlights the importance of language in abstraction.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 9===
<pre>
"Inhomogeneopus", you say? -- That's Greek for "having two left feet".
"Inhomogeneopus", you say? -- That's Greek for "having two left feet".
Here's a corrected version:
Here's a corrected version:
| CP 3.465 is a short summary of these poly-unsaturated "polyads".
| CP 3.465 is a short summary of these poly-unsaturated "polyads".
| CP 3.469 mentions the chemical analogy with "unsaturated bonds".
| CP 3.469 mentions the chemical analogy with "unsaturated bonds".
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 10===
HAPA. Discussion Note 10
<pre>
There are a several things of note that leap to mind
There are a several things of note that leap to mind
in reading Peirce's dictionary entry for "Predicate":
in reading Peirce's dictionary entry for "Predicate":
operation, working on whole equivalence classes of
operation, working on whole equivalence classes of
sentences at a time.
sentences at a time.
</pre>
===HAPA. Discussion Note 11===
HAPA. Discussion Note 11
<pre>
"You can't get there from here"
"You can't get there from here"
So the search continues for a key or a recipe to abstract objects.
So the search continues for a key or a recipe to abstract objects.
</pre>
==HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction • Work Area==
HAPA. Work Area 2
===HAPA. Work Area 1===
<pre>
Subj: Re: ification
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 16:16:02 -0500
From: Jon Awbrey <jawbrey@oakland.edu>
To: Stand Up Ontology <standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org>
Just enough time to insert a genealogical note:
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bentham.htm
Bentham's "Theory of Fictions" begat (paraphrastically)
Bentham's "Theory of Fictions" begat (paraphrastically)
Schönfinkel's "Bausteine" and this begat (independently)
Schönfinkel's "Bausteine" and this begat (independently)
Church's "Lambda Calculus" and this begat (in good time)
Church's "Lambda Calculus" and this begat (in good time)
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bentham.htm
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bentham.htm
</pre>
</pre>
==JITL. Just In Time Logic==
===HAPA. Work Area 2===
<pre>
<pre>
CP 3.642
CP 4.463-465
CP 2.358 is Peirce's Baldwin Dictionary definition of "predicate".
CP 3.465 is a short summary of these poly-unsaturated "polyads".
CP 3.469 mentions the chemical analogy with "unsaturated bonds".
| [On Time and Thought, MS 215, 08 Mar 1873]
| The most ordinary fact of perception, such as "it is light", involves
| 'precisive' abstraction, or 'prescission'. But 'hypostatic' abstraction,
| the abstraction which transforms "it is light" into "there is light here",
| which is the sense which I shall commonly attach to the word abstraction
| (since 'prescission' will do for precisive abstraction) is a very special
| mode of thought. It consists in taking a feature of a percept or percepts
| (after it has already been prescinded from the other elements of the percept),
| so as to take propositional form in a judgment (indeed, it may operate upon
| any judgment whatsoever), and in conceiving this fact to consist in the
| relation between the subject of that judgment and another subject, which
| has a mode of being that merely consists in the truth of propositions of
| which the corresponding concrete term is the predicate.
|
|
| Every mind which passes from doubt to belief must have ideas which follow
| Thus, we transform the proposition, "honey is sweet",
| after one another in time. Every mind which reasons must have ideas which
| into "honey possesses sweetness". "Sweetness" might be
| not only follow after others but are caused by them. Every mind which is
| called a fictitious thing, in one sense. But since the
| capable of logical criticism of its inferences, must be aware of this
| mode of being attributed to it 'consists' in no more than
| determination of its ideas by previous ideas. But is it pre-supposed
| the fact that some things are sweet, and it is not pretended,
| in the conception of a logical mind, that the temporal succession in
| or imagined, that it has any other mode of being, there is,
| its ideas is continuous, and not by discrete steps? A continuum such
| after all, no fiction. The only profession made is that we
| as we suppose time and space to be, is defined as something any part
| consider the fact of honey being sweet under the form of a
| relation; and so we really can. I have selected sweetness
| as an instance of one of the least useful of abstractions.
| Yet even this is convenient. It facilitates such thoughts
| as that the sweetness of honey is particularly cloying;
| that the sweetness of honey is something like the
| sweetness of a honeymoon; etc.
Reference:
| C.S. Peirce, CP 4.235, "The Simplest Mathematics",
| Chapter 3 of the "Minute Logic", Jan-Feb 1902.
|
| http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05091.html
</pre>
==JITL. Just In Time Logic==
===JITL. Note 1===
<pre>
| [On Time and Thought, MS 215, 08 Mar 1873]
|
| Every mind which passes from doubt to belief must have ideas which follow
| after one another in time. Every mind which reasons must have ideas which
| not only follow after others but are caused by them. Every mind which is
| capable of logical criticism of its inferences, must be aware of this
| determination of its ideas by previous ideas. But is it pre-supposed
| in the conception of a logical mind, that the temporal succession in
| its ideas is continuous, and not by discrete steps? A continuum such
| as we suppose time and space to be, is defined as something any part
| of which itself has parts of the same kind. So that the point of time
| of which itself has parts of the same kind. So that the point of time
| or the point of space is nothing but the ideal limit towards which we
| or the point of space is nothing but the ideal limit towards which we
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 2===
JITL. Note 2
<pre>
| [On Time and Thought, MS 215, 08 Mar 1873] (cont.)
| [On Time and Thought, MS 215, 08 Mar 1873] (cont.)
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 3===
JITL. Note 3
<pre>
| [On Time and Thought, MS 216, 08 Mar 1873]
| [On Time and Thought, MS 216, 08 Mar 1873]
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 4===
JITL. Note 4
<pre>
| [On Time and Thought, MS 216, 08 Mar 1873] (cont.)
| [On Time and Thought, MS 216, 08 Mar 1873] (cont.)
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 5===
JITL. Note 5
<pre>
| [Lecture on Practical Logic, MS 191, Summer-Fall 1872]
| [Lecture on Practical Logic, MS 191, Summer-Fall 1872]
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 6===
JITL. Note 6
<pre>
| [Logic, Truth, and the Settlement of Opinion, MS 179, Winter-Spring 1872]
| [Logic, Truth, and the Settlement of Opinion, MS 179, Winter-Spring 1872]
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 7===
JITL. Note 7
<pre>
| [Logic, Truth, and the Settlement of Opinion, MS 179, Winter-Spring 1872] (cont.)
| [Logic, Truth, and the Settlement of Opinion, MS 179, Winter-Spring 1872] (cont.)
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 8===
JITL. Note 8
<pre>
| Chapter 1 (Enlarged Abstract) [MS 182, Winter-Spring 1872]
| Chapter 1 (Enlarged Abstract) [MS 182, Winter-Spring 1872]
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 9===
JITL. Note 9
<pre>
| Chapter 2. Of Inquiry
| Chapter 2. Of Inquiry
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 10===
JITL. Note 10
<pre>
| Chapter 3. Four Methods of Settling Opinion
| Chapter 3. Four Methods of Settling Opinion
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 11===
JITL. Note 11
<pre>
| Chapter 4. Of Reality
| Chapter 4. Of Reality
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 12===
JITL. Note 12
<pre>
| Chapter ___. The List of Categories
| Chapter ___. The List of Categories
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 13===
JITL. Note 13
<pre>
| On Representations
| On Representations
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 14===
JITL. Note 14
<pre>
| I begin with the soul of man. For we first learn that brutes have souls from
| I begin with the soul of man. For we first learn that brutes have souls from
| the facts of the human soul. What brutes and other men do & suffer would be
| the facts of the human soul. What brutes and other men do & suffer would be
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 15===
JITL. Note 15
<pre>
| Chapter 11. On Logical Breadth and Depth
| Chapter 11. On Logical Breadth and Depth
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 16===
JITL. Note 16
<pre>
Cf: JITL 15. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000732.html
Cf: JITL 15. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000732.html
In: JITL. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#712
In: JITL. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#712
NB. I have substituted S_1, S_2, S_3 for Peirce's S', S'', S''', respectively.
NB. I have substituted S_1, S_2, S_3 for Peirce's S', S'', S''', respectively.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 17===
JITL. Note 17
<pre>
| Chapter 11. On Logical Breadth and Depth (cont.)
| Chapter 11. On Logical Breadth and Depth (cont.)
|
|
NB. I have substituted P_1, P_2, P_3 for Peirce's P', P'', P''', respectively.
NB. I have substituted P_1, P_2, P_3 for Peirce's P', P'', P''', respectively.
</pre>
===JITL. Note 18===
JITL. Note 18
<pre>
| Chapter 11. On Logical Breadth and Depth (concl.)
| Chapter 11. On Logical Breadth and Depth (concl.)
|
|
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Vol. 3, 1872-1878',
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Vol. 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
</pre>
==NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia==
==QLOD. Quine “On The Limits Of Decision”==
===NEKS. Note 1===
<pre>
<pre>
| I now proceed to explain the difference between a theoretical
| and a practical proposition, together with the two important
| parallel distinctions between 'definite' and 'vague', and
| 'individual' and 'general', noting, at the same time,
| On the Limits of Decision
| some other distinctions connected with these.
|
| A 'sign' is connected with the "Truth", i.e. the entire Universe
| of being, or, as some say, the Absolute, in three distinct ways.
|
| In the first place, a sign is not a real thing.
| It is of such a nature as to exist in 'replicas'.
| Look down a printed page, and every 'the' you see
| is the same word, every 'e' the same letter. A real
| thing does not so exist in replica. The being of a
| sign is merely 'being represented'. Now 'really being'
| and 'being represented' are very different. Giving to
| the word 'sign' the full scope that reasonably belongs
| to it for logical purposes, a whole book is a sign; and
| a translation of it is a replica of the same sign. A whole
| literature is a sign. The sentence "Roxana was the queen of
| Alexander" is a sign of Roxana and of Alexander, and though
| there is a grammatical emphasis on the former, logically the
| name "Alexander" is as much 'a subject' as is the name "Roxana";
| and the real persons Roxana and Alexander are 'real objects' of
| the sign.
|
| Every sign that is sufficiently complete refers refers to sundry
| real objects. All these objects, even if we are talking of Hamlet's
| madness, are parts of one and the same Universe of being, the "Truth".
| But so far as the "Truth" is merely the 'object' of a sign, it is merely
| the Aristotelian 'Matter' of it that is so.
|
| In addition however to 'denoting' objects every
| sign sufficiently complete 'signifies characters',
| or qualities.
|
| We have a direct knowledge of real objects in every
| experiential reaction, whether of 'Perception' or of
| 'Exertion' (the one theoretical, the other practical).
| These are directly 'hic et nunc'. But we extend the
| category, and speak of numberless real objects with
| which we are not in direct reaction.
|
| We have also direct knowledge of qualities in feeling,
| peripheral and visceral. But we extend this category
| to numberless characters of which we have no immediate
| consciousness.
|
| All these characters are elements of the "Truth".
| Every sign signifies the "Truth". But it is only
| the Aristotelian 'Form' of the universe that it
| signifies.
|
| The logician is not concerned with any metaphysical
| theory; still less, if possible, is the mathematician.
| But it is highly convenient to express ourselves in terms
| of a metaphysical theory; and we no more bind ourselves to
| an acceptance of it than we do when we use substantives such
| as "humanity", "variety", etc. and speak of them as if they
| were substances, in the metaphysical sense.
|
| But, in the third place, every sign is intended to determine a
| sign of the same object with the same signification or 'meaning'.
| Any sign, 'B', which a sign, 'A', is fitted so to determine, without
| violation of its, 'A's, purpose, that is, in accordance with the "Truth",
| even though it, 'B', denotes but a part of the objects of the sign, 'A', and
| signifies but a part of its, 'A's, characters, I call an 'interpretant' of 'A'.
|
| What we call a "fact" is something having the structure of a proposition,
| but supposed to be an element of the very universe itself. The purpose
| of every sign is to express "fact", and by being joined with other signs,
| to approach as nearly as possible to determining an interpretant which
| would be the 'perfect Truth', the absolute Truth, and as such (at least,
| we may use this language) would be the very Universe.
|
| Aristotle gropes for a conception of perfection, or 'entelechy',
| which he never succeeds in making clear. We may adopt the word
| to mean the very fact, that is, the ideal sign which should be
| quite perfect, and so identical, -- in such identity as a sign
| may have, -- with the very matter denoted united with the very
| form signified by it. The entelechy of the Universe of being,
| then, the Universe 'qua' fact, will be that Universe in its
| aspect as a sign, the "Truth" of being. The "Truth", the
| fact that is not abstracted but complete, is the ultimate
| interpretant of every sign.
|
|
| Because these congresses occur at intervals of five years, they make
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 238-240
|
|
| Quine, "Limits of Decision", pp. 156-157.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 2===
<pre>
| On the Limits of Decision (cont.)
| Of the two great tasks of humanity, 'Theory' and 'Practice', the former sets out
| from a sign of a real object with which it is 'acquainted', passing from this,
| as its 'matter', to successive interpretants embodying more and more fully its
| 'form', wishing ultimately to reach a direct 'perception' of the entelechy;
| while the latter, setting out from a sign signifying a character of which it
| 'has an idea', passes from this, as its 'form', to successive interpretants
| realizing more and more precisely its 'matter', hoping ultimately to be able
| to make a direct 'effort', producing the entelechy.
|
|
| It is hard now to imagine not seeing truth-function logic
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 240
|
|
| What makes truth-function logic decidable by truth tables
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
| assigned to its component quantifications. Why does this not make
|
| Quine, "Limits of Decision", p. 157.
|
|
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 3===
<pre>
| On the Limits of Decision (cont.)
| But of these two movements, logic very properly
| prefers to take that of Theory as the primary one.
|
| It speaks of an 'antecedent' as that which being known something else,
| the 'consequent' may 'also' be known. In our vernacular, the latter
| is inaccurately called a 'consequence', a word that the precise
| terminology of logic reserves for the proposition expressing
| the relation of any consequent to its antecedent, or for
| the fact which this proposition expresses.
|
| The conception of the relation of antecedent and consequent amounts,
| therefore, to a confusion of thought between the reference of a sign
| to its 'meaning', the character which it attributes to its object,
| and its appeal to an interpretant. But it is the former of these
| which is the more essential.
|
| The knowledge that the sun has always risen about once in each
| 24 hours (sidereal time) is a sign whose object is the sun, and
| (rightly understood) a part of its signification is the rising of
| the sun tomorrow morning.
|
| The relation of an antecedent to its consequent, in its confusion of
| the signification with the interpretent, is nothing but a special case
| of what occurs in all action of one thing upon another, modified so as to
| be merely an affair of being represented instead of really being. It is the
| representative action of the sign upon its object. For whenever one thing acts
| upon another it determines in that other a quality that would not otherwise have
| been there.
|
| In the vernacular we often call an effect a "consequence",
| because that which really is may correctly be represented;
| but we should refuse to call a mere logical consequent
| an "effect", because that which is merely represented,
| however legitimately, cannot be said really to be.
|
|
| The answer obviously is that this criterion is too
| If we speak of an argumentation as "producing a great effect",
| it is not the interpretant itself, by any means, to which we
| not always independent of one another. A formula
| refer, but only the particular replica of it which is made
| in the minds of those addressed.
| of truth values to its component quantifications,
| of the component quantifications.
|
|
| If, on the other hand, we can put a formula of quantification
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 240
|
|
| Quine, "Limits of Decision", p. 157.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 4===
<pre>
| On the Limits of Decision (cont.)
| If a sign, 'B', only signifies characters that
| are elements (or the whole) of the meaning of
| another sign, 'A', then 'B' is said to be a
| 'predicate' (or 'essential part') of 'A'.
|
| If a sign 'A', only denotes real objects that
| are a part or the whole of the objects denoted
| by another sign, 'B', then 'A' is said to be a
| 'subject' (or 'substantial part') of 'B'.
|
| The totality of the predicates of a sign, and also the totality of the
| characters it signifies, are indifferently each called its logical 'depth'.
| This is the oldest and most convenient term. Synonyms are the 'comprehension'
| of the Port-Royalists, the 'content' ('Inhalt') of the Germans, the 'force'
| of DeMorgan, the 'connotation' of J.S. Mill. (The last is objectionable.)
|
| The totality of the subjects, and also, indifferently, the totality of the
| real objects of a sign is called the logical 'breadth'. This is the oldest
| and most convenient term. Synonyms are the 'extension' of the Port-Royalists
| (ill-called 'extent' by some modern French logicians), the 'sphere' ('Umfang')
| of translators from the German, the 'scope' of DeMorgan, the 'denotation' of
| J.S. Mill.
|
| Besides the logical depth and breadth, I have proposed (in 1867) the terms
| 'information' and 'area' to denote the total of fact (true or false) that
| in a given state of knowledge a sign embodies.
|
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 241
|
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
</pre>
==POLA. Philosophy Of Logical Atomism==
===NEKS. Note 5===
<pre>
<pre>
In our reading of the parts of the "Kaina Stoicheia" that take up --
or take off from -- the subject of "Theory and Practice", we have
covered this much:
KS 1. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003063.html -- NEM 4, 238-240
KS 2. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003065.html -- NEM 4, 240
KS 3. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003075.html -- NEM 4, 240
KS 4. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003090.html -- NEM 4, 241
We continue with that reading here:
| The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (1918)
| Other distinctions depend upon those that we have drawn.
|
| I have spoken of real relations as reactions. It may be asked how far I
| mean to say that all real relations are reactions. It is seldom that one
| falls upon so fascinating a subject for a train of thought [as] the analysis
| of that problem in all its ramifications, mathematical, physical, biological,
| sociological, psychological, logical, and so round to the mathematical again.
|
|
| The following [is the text] of a course of eight lectures delivered in
| The answer cannot be satisfactorily given in a few words; but it lies hidden
| [Gordon Square] London, in the first months of 1918, [which] are very
| beneath the obvious truth that any exact necessity is expressible by a general
| largely concerned with explaining certain ideas which I learnt from
| equation; and nothing can be added to one side of a general equation without
| my friend and former pupil Ludwig Wittgenstein. I have had no
| an equal addition to the other. Logical necessity is the necessity that a sign
| opportunity of knowing his views since August 1914, and I do
| should be true to a 'real' object; and therefore there is 'logical' reaction in
| not even know whether he is alive or dead. He has therefore
| every real dyadic relation. If 'A' is in a real relation to 'B', 'B' stands in
| no responsibility for what is said in these lectures beyond
| a logically contrary relation to 'A', that is, in a relation at once converse to
| that of having originally supplied many of the theories
| and inconsistent with the direct relation. For here we speak [not] of a vague
| sign of the relation but of the relation between two individuals, 'A' and 'B'.
|
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 35.
| This very relation is one in which 'A' alone stands to any individual,
| and it to 'B' only. There are, however, 'degenerate' dyadic relations, --
| 'degenerate' in the sense in which two coplanar lines form a 'degenerate'
| conic, -- where this is not true. Namely, they are individual relations
| of identity, such as the relation of 'A' to 'A'. All mere resemblances
| and relations of reason are of this sort.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 241
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
|
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 6===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions
| Of signs there are two different degenerate forms.
| But though I give them this disparaging name, they
| are of the greatest utility, and serve purposes that
| genuine signs could not.
|
|
| This course of lectures which I am now beginning I have called
| The more degenerate of the two forms (as I look upon it)
| the Philosophy of Logical Atomism. Perhaps I had better begin
| is the 'icon'. This is defined as a sign of which the
| character that fits it to become a sign of the sort
| that it is, is simply inherent in it as a quality
| of it.
| course of thinking about the philosophy of mathematics, although
| I should find it hard to say exactly how far there is a definite
| logical connection between the two. The things I am going to say
|
|
| As I have attempted to prove in 'The Principles of Mathematics', when
| For example, a geometrical figure drawn on paper may
| be an 'icon' of a triangle or other geometrical form.
| basis of this a certain kind of metaphysic.
|
|
| The logic which I shall advocate is atomistic, as opposed to
| If one meets a man whose language one does not know
| the monistic logic of the people who more or less follow Hegel.
| and resorts to imitative sounds and gestures, these
| When I say that my logic is atomistic, I mean that I share the
| approach the character of an icon. The reason they
| are not pure icons is that the purpose of them is
| emphasized.
| of analysis.
|
|
| One is often told that the process of analysis is falsification, that
| A pure icon is independent of any purpose. It serves as a sign
| solely and simply by exhibiting the quality it serves to signify.
| The relation to its object is a degenerate relation. It asserts
| I do not mean to say, of course, and nobody would maintain, that when you
| nothing. If it conveys information, it is only in the sense in
| which the object that it is used to represent may be said to
| convey information. An 'icon' can only be a fragment of
| a completer sign.
|
| is not. When I say that something is "undeniable", I mean that it is not
| the sort of thing that anybody is going to deny; it does not follow from
| that that it is true, though it does follow that we shall all think it true --
| and that is as near to truth as we seem able to get.
|
|
| When you are considering any sort of theory of knowledge, you are more or less
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 241-242
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 35-37.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 7===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| The other form of degenerate sign is to be termed an 'index'.
| It is defined as a sign which is fit to serve as such by
| virtue of being in a real reaction with its object.
|
| For example, a weather-cock is such a sign. It is fit to
| be taken as an index of the wind for the reason that it is
| physically connected with the wind. A weather-cock conveys
| information; but this it does because in facing the very
| quarter from which the wind blows, it resembles the wind
| in this respect, and thus has an icon connected with it.
| In this respect it is not a pure index.
|
| A pure index simply forces attention to the object
| with which it reacts and puts the interpreter into
| mediate reaction with that object, but conveys no
| information.
|
| As an example, take an exclamation "Oh!"
|
| The letters attached to a geometrical figure are another case.
|
| Absolutely unexceptionable examples of degenerate forms must not be expected.
| All that is possible is to give examples which tend sufficiently in towards
| those forms to make the mean suggest what is meant.
|
| It is remarkable that while neither a pure icon nor a pure index
| can assert anything, an index which forces something to be an 'icon',
| as a weather-cock does, or which forces us to regard it as an 'icon',
| as the legend under a portrait does, does make an assertion, and forms
| a 'proposition'. This suggests the true definition of a proposition,
| which is a question in much dispute at this moment. A proposition
| is a sign which separately, or independently, indicates its object.
|
| No 'index', however, can be an 'argumentation'. It may be what many
| writers call an 'argument; that is, a basis of argumentation; but an
| argument in the sense of a sign which separately shows what interpretant
| it is intended to determine it cannot be.
|
|
| The reason that I call my doctrine 'logical' atomism is because
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 242
|
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 37.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 8===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| It will be observed that the icon is very perfect in respect
| to signification, bringing its interpreter face to face with
| the very character signified. For this reason, it is the
| mathematical sign 'par excellence'. But in denotation it
| is wanting. It gives no assurance that any such object
| as it represents really exists.
|
| The index on the other hand does this most perfectly,
| actually bringing to the interpreter the experience
| of the very object denoted. But it is quite wanting
| in signification unless it involves an iconic part.
|
|
| It is a rather curious fact in philosophy that the data which are
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 242-243
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 37-38.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 9===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| We now come to the genuine sign for which I propose the
| technical designation 'symbol', following a use of that
| word not infrequent among logicians including Aristotle.
|
|
| The first truism to which I wish to draw your attention -- and I hope
| A symbol is defined as a sign which is fit to serve
| you will agree with me that these things that I call truisms are so
| as such simply because it will be so interpreted.
|
|
| I will try first of all to give you a preliminary explanation of what
| To recapitulate:
|
|
| If I say "It is raining", what I say is true in a certain condition of
| ) ( it possesses
| weather and is false in other conditions of weather. The condition of
| An icon } ( the quality
| weather that makes my statement true (or false as the case may be), is
| ) ( signified.
| what I should call a "fact".
| ) (
| ) ( it is in real
| ) ( reaction
| An index > is a sign fit to be used as such because < with the
| ) ( object
| ) ( denoted.
| ) (
| ) ( it determines
| A symbol ) ( the interpretant
| ) ( sign.
|
|
| If I say, "Socrates is dead", my statement will be true owing to a
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 243
|
|
| If I say, "Gravitation varies inversely as the square of the distance",
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| my statement is rendered true by astronomical fact.
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| If I say, "Two and two are four", it is arithmetical fact that makes
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| my statement true.
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 10===
<pre>
| Language and all abstracted thinking, such as belongs
| to minds who think in words, is of the symbolic nature.
|
| Many words, though strictly symbols, are so far iconic that they are apt
| to determine iconic interpretants, or as we say, to call up lively images.
| Such, for example, are those that have a fancied resemblance to sounds
| associated with their objects; that are 'onomatopoetic', as they say.
|
| There are words, which although symbols, act very much like indices.
| Such are personal, demonstrative, and relative pronouns, for which
| 'A', 'B', 'C', etc. are often substituted.
|
| A 'Proper Name', also, which denotes a single individual well known
| to exist by the utterer and interpreter, differs from an index only
| in that it is a conventional sign.
|
| Other words refer indirectly to indices. Such is "yard"
| which refers to a certain bar in Westminster, and has no
| meaning unless the interpreter is, directly or indirectly,
| in physical reaction with that bar.
|
| Symbols are particularly remote from the Truth itself. They are abstracted.
| They neither exhibit the very characters signified as icons do, nor assure us
| of the reality of their objects, as indices do. Many proverbial sayings express
| a sense of this weakness; as "Words prove nothing", and the like. Nevertheless,
| they have a great power of which the degenerate signs are quite destitute. They
| alone express laws. Nor are they limited to this theoretical use. They serve
| to bring about reasonableness and law. The words 'justice' and 'truth', amid
| a world that habitually neglects these things and utterly derides the words,
| are nevertheless among the very greatest powers the world contains. They
| create defenders and animate them with their strength. This is not rhetoric
| or metaphor: it is a great and solid fact of which it behooves a logician to
| take account.
|
| A symbol is the only kind of sign which can be an argumentation.*
|
|* I commonly call this an argument; for nothing is more false historically
| than to say that this word has not at all times been used in this sense.
| Still, the longer word is a little more definite.
|
|
| On the other hand, if I say, "Socrates is alive",
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 243-244
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 40-41.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 11===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| I have already defined an argument as a sign which separately monstrates
| what its intended interpretant is, and a proposition as a sign which
| separately indicates [what] its object is, and we have seen that
| the icon alone cannot be a proposition while the symbol alone
| can be an argument.
|
| That a sign cannot be an argument without being a proposition is shown
| by attempting to form such an argument. "Tully, c'est-a-dire a Roman",
| evidently asserts that Tully is a Roman. Why this is so is plain. The
| interpretant is a sign which denotes that which the sign of which it is
| interpretant denotes. But, being a symbol, or genuine sign, it has a
| signification and therefore it represents the object of the principal
| sign as possessing the characters that it, the interpretant, signifies.
|
| It will be observed that an argument is a symbol which separately
| monstrates (in any way) its 'purposed' interpretant. Owing to
| a symbol being essentially a sign only by virtue of its being
| interpretable as such, the idea of a purpose is not entirely
| separable from it. The symbol, by the very definition of it,
| has an interpretant in view. Its very meaning is intended.
| Indeed, a purpose is precisely the interpretant of a symbol.
|
| But the conclusion of an argument is a specially
| monstrated interpretant, singled out from among
| the possible interpretants. It is, therefore,
| of its nature single, although not necessarily
| simple.
|
|
| I want you to realize that when I speak of a fact I do not mean a
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 244
|
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 41.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 12===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| If we erase from an argument every monstration of its special purpose,
| it becomes a proposition; usually a copulate proposition, composed of
| several members whose mode of conjunction is of the kind expressed by
| "and", which the grammarians call a "copulative conjunction".
|
| If from a propositional symbol we erase one or more of the parts which
| separately denote its objects, the remainder is what is called a 'rhema';
| but I shall take the liberty of calling it a 'term'.
|
|
| It is important to observe that facts belong to the objective world.
| Thus, from the proposition "Every man is mortal", we erase "Every man",
| They are not created by our thought or beliefs except in special cases.
| which is shown to be denotative of an object by the circumstance that if
| That is one of the sort of things which I should set up as an obvious truism,
| it be replaced by an indexical symbol, such as "That" or "Socrates", the
| but, of course, one is aware, the moment one has read any philosophy at all,
| symbol is reconverted into a proposition, we get the 'rhema' or 'term':
| how very much there is to be said before such a statement as that can become
|
| the kind of position that you want. The first thing I want to emphasize is
| " ___ is mortal".
| that the outer world -- the world, so to speak, which knowledge is aiming
|
| at knowing -- is not completely described by a lot of "particulars", but
| Most logicians will say that this is not a term. The term,
| that you must also take account of these things that I call facts, which
| they will say, is "mortal", while I have left the copula "is"
| are the sort of things that you express by a sentence, and that these,
| standing with it. Now while it is true that one of Aristotle's
| just as much as particular chairs and tables, are part of the real world.
| memoirs dissects a proposition into subject, predicate, and verb,
| yet as long as Greek was the language which logicians had in view,
| no importance was attached to the substantive verb, "is", because
| the Greek permits it to be omitted. It was not until the time of
| Abelard, when Greek was forgotten, and logicians had Latin in mind,
| that the copula was recognized as a constituent part of the logical
| proposition.
|
| I do not, for my part, regard the usages of language
| as forming a satisfactory basis for logical doctrine.
| Logic, for me, is the study of the essential conditions
| to which signs must conform in order to function as such.
| How the constitution of the human mind may compel men to
| think is not the question; and the appeal to language
| appears to me to be no better than an unsatisfactory
| method of ascertaining psychological facts that are
| of no relevancy to logic.
|
| But if such appeal is to be made (and logicians generally
| do make it; in particular their doctrine of the copula
| appears to rest solely upon this), it would seem that
| they ought to survey human languages generally and
| not confine themselves to the small and extremely
| peculiar group of Aryan speech.
|
| Without pretending, myself, to an extensive acquaintance with languages,
| I am confident that the majority of non-Aryan languages do not ordinarily
| employ any substantive verb equivalent to "is". Some place a demonstrative
| or relative pronoun; as if one should say:
|
| " ___ is a man 'that' is translated"
|
| for "A man is translated". Others have a word, syllable, or letter, to show
| that an assertion is intended. I have been led to believe that in very few
| languages outside the Aryan group is the common noun a well-developed and
| independent part of speech. Even in the Shemitic languages, which are
| remarkably similar to the Aryan, common nouns are treated as verbal
| forms and are quite separated from proper names.
|
| The ordinary view of a term, however, supposes it to be a common noun in
| the fullest sense of the term. It is rather odd that of all the languages
| which I have examined in a search for some support of this ordinary view, so
| outlandish a speech as the Basque is the only one I have found that seems to
| be constructed thoroughly in the manner in which the logicians teach us that
| every rational being must think.*
|
|* While I am on the subject of languages I may take occasion to remark
| with reference to my treatment of the direct and indirect "objects"
| of a verb as so many subjects of the proposition, that about nine out
| of every ten languages regularly emphasize one of the subjects, and
| make it the principal one, by putting it in a special nominative case,
| or by some equivalent device. The ordinary logicians seem to think
| that this, too, is a necessity of thought, although one of the living
| Aryan languages of Europe habitually puts that subject in the genetive
| which the Latin puts in the nominative. This practice was very likely
| borrowed from a language similar to the Basque spoken by some progenitors
| of the Gaels. Some languages employ what is, in effect, an ablative for
| this purpose. It no doubt is a rhetorical enrichment of a language to
| have a form "B is loved by A" in addition to "A loves B". The language
| will be still richer if it has a third form in which A and B are treated
| as equally the subjects of what is said. But logically, the three are
| identical.
|
|
| Except in psychology, most of our statements are not intended merely to
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 244-246
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 41-42.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 13===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| What is the difference between " ___ is a man" and "man"?
| The logicians hold that the essence of the latter lies in
| a definition describing its characters; which doctrine
| virtually makes "man" equivalent to "what is a man".
| It thus differs from " ___ is a man" by the addition*
| of the badly named "indefinite pronoun", 'what'.
| The rhema " ___ is a man" is a fragmentary sign.
| But "man" is never used alone, and would have no
| meaning by itself. It is sometimes written upon
| an object to show the nature of that object; but
| in such case, the appearance of the object is an
| index of that object; and the two taken together
| form a proposition. In respect to being fragmentary,
| therefore, the two signs are alike. It may be said
| that "Socrates wise" does not make a sentence in the
| language at present used in logic, although in Greek
| it would. But it is important not to forget that no
| more do "Socrates" and "is wise" make a proposition
| unless there is something to indicate that they are
| to be taken as signs of the same object. On the
| whole, it appears to me that the only difference
| between my rhema and the "term" of other logicians
| is that the latter contains no explicit recognition
| of its own fragmentary nature. But this is as much
| as to say that logically their meaning is the same;
| and it is for that reason that I venture to use the
| old, familiar word "term" to denote the rhema.
|
|
| There are a great many different kinds of facts, and we shall be
|* [Missing lines in NEM supplied from EP 2 at this point. -- JA]
|
|
| There are 'particular facts', such as "This is white"; then there
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 246
|
|
| There again it would be a very great mistake to suppose that
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| single particular fact throughout the universe, and that there did
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
| the universe unless you also added: "These that I have chronicled are
| world completely without having general facts as well as particular facts.
|
|
| Another distinction, which is perhaps a little more difficult to make, is
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| between positive facts and negative facts, such as "Socrates was alive" --
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| a positive fact -- and "Socrates is not alive" -- you might say a negative
| fact. But the distinction is difficult to make precise.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 14===
<pre>
| It may be asked what is the nature of the sign which joins "Socrates"
| to " ___ is wise", so as to make the proposition "Socrates is wise".
| I reply that it is an index. But, it may be objected, an index
| has for its object a thing 'hic et nunc', while a sign is not
| such a thing. This is true, if under "thing" we include
| singular events, which are the only things that are
| strictly 'hic et nunc'.
|
| But it is not the two signs "Socrates" and "wise" that are
| connected, but the 'replicas' of them used in the sentence.
| We do not say that " ___ is wise", as a general sign, is
| connected specially with Socrates, but only that it is so
| as here used. The two replicas of the words "Socrates"
| and "wise" are 'hic et nunc', and their junction is a
| part of their occurrence 'hic et nunc'. They form a
| pair of reacting things which the index of connection
| denotes in their present reaction, and not in a general
| way; although it is possible to generalize the mode of
| this reaction like any other.
|
| There will be no objection to a generalization which shall call the mark
| of junction a 'copula', provided it be recognized that, in itself, it is
| not general, but is an 'index'. No other kind of sign would answer the
| purpose; no general verb "is" can express it. For something would have
| to bring the general sense of that general verb down to the case in hand.
| An index alone can do this.
|
| But how is this index to signify* the connection?
| In the only way in which any index can ever
| signify* anything; by involving an 'icon'.
| The sign itself is a connection.
|
|
| Then there are facts concerning particular things or particular qualities
| I shall be asked how this applies to Latin, where the parts of the sentence are
| or relations, and, apart from them, the completely general facts of the sort
| arranged solely with a view to rhetorical effect. I reply that, nevertheless,
| that you have in logic, where there is no mention of any constituent whatever
| it is obvious that in Latin, as in every language, it is the juxtaposition
| of the actual world, no mention of any particular thing or particular quality
| which connects words. Otherwise they might be left in their places in the
| or particular relation, indeed strictly you may say no mention of anything.
| dictionary. Inflexion does a little; but the main work of construction,
| the whole work of connexion, is performed by putting the words together.
|
|
| That is one of the characteristics
| In Latin much is left to the good sense of the interpreter.
|
|
| Such a proposition is: "If one class is
| That is to say, the common stock of knowledge of utterer and interpreter,
| part of another, a term which is a member
| called to mind by the words, is a part of the sign. That is more or less
| of the one is also a member of the other".
| the case in all conversation, oral and scriptal. It is, thus, clear that
| the vital spark of every proposition, the peculiar propositional element
| of the proposition, is an indexical proposition; an index involving an
| icon. The rhema, say " ___ loves ___ ", has blanks which suggest filling;
| and a concrete actual connection of a subject with each blank monstrates
| the connection of ideas.
|
|
| All those words that come in the statement of a pure logical proposition
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 246-247
|
|
| Then there are facts about the properties of single things; and facts
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| about the relations between two things, three things, and so on; and
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| any number of different classifications of some of the facts in the
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 42-43.
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
* [NB by JA. Recall that "signify" has a "connotative" connotation here:]
| In addition however to 'denoting' objects every
| sign sufficiently complete 'signifies characters',
| or qualities.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| NEM 4, 239.
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Cf: KS 1. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003063.html
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| In: KS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/thread.html#3063
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 15===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| It is the Proposition which forms the main subject
| of this whole scholium; for the distinctions of
| 'vague' and 'distinct', 'general' and 'individual'
| are propositional distinctions.
|
|
| It is obvious that there is not a dualism of true and false facts;
| I have endeavored to restrain myself from long discussions of terminology.
| there are only just facts. It would be a mistake, of course, to
| But here we reach a point where a very common terminology overlaps an
| say that all facts are true. That would be a mistake because
| erroneous conception. Namely those logicians who follow the lead of
| true and false are correlatives, and you would only say of
| Germans, instead of treating of propositions, speak of "judgments"
| a thing that it was true if it was the sort of thing that
| ('Urtheile'). They regard a proposition as merely an expression in
| 'might' be false. A fact cannot be either true or false.
| speech or writing of a judgment. More than one error is involved in
|
| this practice. In the first place, a judgment, as they very correctly
| That brings us on to the question of statements or propositions or
| teach, is a subject of psychology. Since psychologists, now-a-days,
| judgments, all those things that do have the quality of truth and
| not only renounce all pretension to knowledge of the 'soul', but also
| falsehood. For the purposes of logic, though not, I think, for the
| take pains to avoid talking of the 'mind', the latter is at present not
| a scientific term, at all; and therefore I am not prepared to say that
| the proposition as the thing which is going to be our typical vehicle
| logic does not, as such, treat of the mind. I should like to take mind
| on the duality of truth and falsehood.
| in such a sense that this could be affirmed; but in any sense in which
| psychology, -- the scientific psychology now recognized, -- treats of
| mind, logic, I maintain, has no concern with it.
|
|
| A proposition, one may say, is a sentence in the indicative,
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 247-248
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 43-44.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 16===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| Without stopping here to discuss this large question,
| I will say that psychology is a science which makes
| special observations; and its whole business is
| to make the phenomena so observed (along with
| familiar facts allied to those things),
| definite and comprehensible.
|
| Logic is a science little removed from pure mathematics.
| It cannot be said to make any positive phenomena known,
| although it takes account and rests upon phenomena of
| daily and hourly experience, which it so analyzes as
| to bring out recondite truths about them.
|
|
| A proposition is just a symbol. It is a complex symbol in the
| One might think that a pure mathematician might assume these
| sense that it has parts which are also symbols: a symbol may
| things as an initial hypothesis and deduce logic from these;
| be defined as complex when it has parts that are symbols.
| but this turns out, upon trial, not to be the case.
|
|
| In a sentence containing several words, the several words are each symbols,
| The logician has to be recurring to reexamination of the
| and the sentence comprising them is therefore a complex symbol in that sense.
| phenomena all along the course of his investigations.
| But logic is all but as far remote from psychology
| as is pure mathematics.
|
|
| There is a good deal of importance to philosophy in the theory of symbolism,
| Logic is the study of the essential nature of signs.
|
|
| That, of course, is especially likely in very abstract studies such as
| A sign is something that exists in replicas. Whether the sign "it is raining"
| philosophical logic, because the subject-matter that you are supposed
| or "all pairs of particles of matter have component accelerations toward one
| to be thinking of is so exceedingly difficult and elusive that any
| another inversely proportional to the square of the distance" happens to have
| a replica in writing, in oral speech, or in silent thought, is a distinction
| about it except perhaps once in six months for half a minute.
| of the very minutest interest to logic, which is a study, not of replicas,
| The rest of the time you think about the symbols, because
| but of signs.
| often manage to think about it.
|
|
| The really good philosopher is the one who does
| But this is not the only, nor the most serious error involved in making logic
| once in six months think about it for a minute.
| treat of "judgments" in place of propositions. It involves confounding two
| things which must be distinguished if a real comprehension of logic is to
| theory of symbolism has a certain importance,
| be attained.
| mistake the properties of the symbolism
|
|
| It has other interesting sides to it too.
| A 'proposition', as I have just intimated, is not to be understood as the
| There are different kinds of symbols,
| lingual expression of a judgment. It is, on the contrary, that sign of
| which the judgment is one replica and the lingual expression another.
| symbol and what is symbolized, and
| But a judgment is distinctly 'more' than the mere mental replica of
| very important fallacies arise
| a proposition. It not merely 'expresses' the proposition, but it
| from not realizing this.
| goes further and 'accepts' it.
|
|
| The sort of contradictions about which
| I grant that the normal use of a proposition is to affirm it; and its
| I shall be speaking in connection with
| chief logical properties relate to what would result in reference to its
| types in a later lecture all arise from
| affirmation. It is, therefore, convenient in logic to express propositions
| mistakes in symbolism, from putting one
| in most cases in the indicative mood. But the proposition in the sentence,
| sort of symbol in the place where another
| "Socrates est sapiens", strictly expressed, is "Socratem sapientum esse".
| sort of symbol ought to be.
| The defence of this position is that in this way we distinguish between
| a proposition and the assertion of it; and without such distinction it
| is impossible to get a distinct notion of the nature of the proposition.
|
|
| Some of the notions that have been thought absolutely fundamental in philosophy
| One and the same proposition may be affirmed, denied, judged,
| have arisen, I believe, entirely through mistakes as to symbolism -- e.g. the
| doubted, inwardly inquired into, put as a question, wished,
| notion of existence, or, if you like, reality. Those two words stand for a
| asked for, effectively commanded, taught, or merely expressed,
| and does not thereby become a different proposition. What is
| the nature of these operations? The only one that need detain
| so on, and altogther these notions of reality and existence have played a
| us is affirmation, including judgment, or affirmation to oneself.
| occurred in philosophy, they have been entirely the outcome of a muddle
| that practically everything that has been said about existence is sheer
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 44-45.
| As an aid in dissecting the constitution of affirmation I shall employ
| a certain logical magnifying-glass that I have often found efficient
| in such business. Imagine, then, that I write a proposition on a
| piece of paper, perhaps a number of times, simply as a calligraphic
| exercise. It is not likely to prove a dangerous amusement. But
| suppose I afterwards carry the paper before a notary public and
| make affidavit to its contents. That may prove to be a horse
| of another color. The reason is that this affidavit may be
| used to determine an assent to the proposition it contains
| in the minds of judge and jury; -- an effect that the paper
| would not have had if I had not sworn to it. For certain
| penalties here and hereafter are attached to swearing to
| a false proposition; and consequently the fact that
| I have sworn to it will be taken as a negative index
| that it is not false. This assent in judge and jury's
| minds may effect in the minds of sheriff and posse a
| determination to an act of force to the detriment of
| some innocent man's liberty or property. Now certain
| ideas of justice and good order are so powerful that
| the ultimate result may be very bad for me.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| This is the way that affirmation looks under the microscope; for the only
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| difference between swearing to a proposition and an ordinary affirmation of
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| it, such as logic contemplates, is that in the latter case the penalties
| are less and even less certain than those of the law. The reason there
| are any penalties is, as before, that the affirmation may determine a
| judgment to the same effect in the mind of the interpreter to his cost.
| It cannot be that the sole cause of his believing it is that there are
| such penalties, since two events cannot cause one another, unless they
| are simultaneous. There must have been, and we well know that there is,
| a sort of hypnotic disposition to believe what one is told with an air [of]
| command. It is Grimes's credenciveness, which is the essence of hypnotism.
| This disposition produced belief; belief produced the penalties; and the
| knowledge of these strengthens the disposition to believe.
|
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 248-249
|
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 17===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| I have discussed the nature of belief
| in the 'Popular Science Monthly' for
| November 1877. On the whole, we may
| set down the following definitions:
|
| A 'belief' in a proposition is a controlled and contented habit of
| acting in ways that will be productive of desired results only if
| the proposition is true.
|
| An 'affirmation' is an act of an utterer of a proposition to an interpreter,
| and consists, in the first place, in the deliberate exercise, in uttering
| the proposition, of a force tending to determine a belief in it in the
| mind of the interpreter. Perhaps that is a sufficient definition of it;
| but it involves also a voluntary self-subjection to penalties in the
| event of the interpreter's mind (and still more the general mind of
| society) subsequently becoming decidedly determined to the belief
| at once in the falsity of the proposition and in the additional
| proposition that the utterer believed the proposition to be
| false at that time he uttered it.
|
|
| Perhaps I ought to say a word or two about what I am
| A 'judgment' is a mental act deliberately exercising a force tending to
| understanding by symbolism, because I think some people
| determine in the mind of the agent a belief in the proposition: to which
| think you only mean mathematical symbols when you talk
| should perhaps be added that the agent must be aware of his being liable
| about symbolism. I am using it in a sense to include
| to inconvenience in the event of the proposition's proving false in any
| practical aspect.
| word is a symbol, and every sentence, and so forth.
|
|
| When I speak of a symbol I simply mean something that "means" something else,
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 249-250
|
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 45.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 18===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| In order fully to understand the distinction between a proposition and an argument,
| it will be found important to class these acts, affirmation, etc. and ascertain
| their precise nature. The question is a purely logical one; but it happens
| that a false metaphysics is generally current, especially among men who
| are influenced by physics but yet are not physicists enough fully to
| comprehend physics, which metaphysics would disincline those who
| believe in it from readily accepting the purely logical statement
| of the nature of affirmation. I shall therefore be forced to
| touch upon metaphysics. Yet I refuse to enter here upon
| a metaphysical discussion; I shall merely hint at what
| ground it is necessary to take in opposition to
| a common doctrine of that kind.
|
| Affirmation is of the nature of a symbol.
| It will be thought that this cannot be
| the case since an affirmation, as the
| above analysis shows, produces real
| effects, physical effects. No sign,
| however, is a real thing. It has no
| real being, but only being represented.
|
| I might more easily persuade readers to think that affirmation was
| an index, since an index is, perhaps, a real thing. Its replica,
| at any rate, is in real reaction with its object, and it forces
| a reference to that object upon the mind. But a symbol, a word,
| certainly exists only in replica, contrary to the nature of
| a real thing; and indeed the symbol only becomes a sign
| because because its interpreter happens to be prepared
| to represent it as such. Hence, I must and do admit
| that a symbol cannot exert any real force. Still,
| I maintain that every sufficiently complete symbol
| governs things, and that symbols alone do this.
| I mean that though it is not a force, it is
| a law.
|
|
| As to what one means by "meaning", I will give a few illustrations.
| Now those who regard the false metaphysics
| For instance, the word "Socrates", you will say, means a certain man;
| of which I speak as the only clear opinion
| the word "mortal" means a certain quality; and the sentence "Socrates
| on its subject are in the habit of calling
| is mortal" means a certain fact. But these three sorts of meaning are
| laws "uniformities", meaning that what we
| entirely distinct, and you will get into the most hopeless contradictions
| call laws are, in fact, nothing but common
| if you think the word "meaning" has the same meaning in each of these three
| characters of classes of events. It is
| true that they hold that they are symbols,
| is meant by "meaning", and that therefore there is just one sort of relation of
| as I shall endeavor to show that they are;
| the symbol to what is symbolized. A name would be a proper symbol to use for
| but this is to their minds equivalent to
| a person; a sentence (or a proposition) is the proper symbol for a fact.
| saying that they are common characters
| of events; for they entertain a very
| different conception of the nature of
| a symbol from mine.
|
|
| A belief or a statement has duality of truth and falsehood, which the
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 250
|
|
| It is very important to realize such things, for instance,
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
| "Socrates is dead" and "Socrates is not dead". And those two
| to fact is a totally different one from the relation of name
| around you.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 19===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (concl.)
| I begin, then, by showing that a law is
| not a mere common character of events.
|
| Suppose that a man throwing a pair of dice, which were
| all that honest dice are supposed to be, were to throw
| sixes a hundred times running. Every mathematician will
| admit that that would be no ground for expecting the next
| throw to turn up sixes. It is true that in any actual case
| in which we should see sixes thrown a hundred times running we
| should very rightly be confident that the next throw would turn up
| sixes likewise. But why should we do so? Can anybody sincerely deny
| that it would be because we should think the throwing of a hundred
| successive sixes was an almost infallible indication of there
| being some real connection between those throws, so that the
| series not merely a uniformity in the common character of
| turning up sixes, but something more, a result of a real
| circumstance about the dice connecting the throws?
|
|
| There are two different relations, as you see, that a proposition
| This example illustrates the logical principle that mere community of
| character between the members of a collection is no argument, however
| true to the fact, and the other being false to the fact. Both are
| slender, tending to show that the same character belongs to another
| object not a member of that collection and not (as far as we have
| any reason to think) having any real connection with it, unless
| it can have to what it names. A name can just name a particular,
| perchance it be in having the character in question. For the
| or, if it does not, it is not a name at all, it is a noise. It
| usual supposition that we make about honest dice is that there
| will be no real connection (or none of the least significance)
| between their different throws. I know that writer has copied
| to be a proposition if it is false. It has two ways, of being
| writer in the feeble analysis of chance as consisting in our
| true and being false, which together correspond to the property
| ignorance. But the calculus of probabilities is pure nonsense
| unless it affords assurance in the long run. Now what assurance
| but just a meaningless noise, so a phrase which is apparently a
| could there be concerning a long run of throws of a pair of dice,
| proposition may be either true or false, or may be meaningless,
| if, instead of knowing they were honest dice, we merely did not
| know whether they were or not, or if, instead of knowing that
| there would be no important connection between the throws,
| propositions are quite different from those of names, and that the
| we merely did not know that there would be.
| relations they have to facts are quite different, and therefore
| propositions are not names for facts. You must not run away with
| the idea that you can name facts in any other way; you cannot.
| You cannot name them at all. You cannot properly name a fact.
| The only thing you can do is to assert it, or deny it, or
| desire it, or will it, or wish it, or question it, but all
| only have it there as something to be asserted or denied or
| something of that sort, but not something to be named.
|
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 47.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 250-251
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 20===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc.
| That certain objects 'A', 'B', 'C', etc. are known to have
| a certain character is not the slightest reason for supposing
| that another object [Xi], quite unconnected with the others so
| far as we know, has that character. Nor has this self evident
| proposition ever been denied. A "law", however, is taken very
| rightly by everybody to be a reason for predicting that an event
| will have a certain character although the events known to have
| that character have no other real connection with it than the law.
|
| This shows that the law is not a mere uniformity but involves a real connection.
| It is true that those metaphysicians say that if 'A', 'B', 'C', etc. are known
| to have two common characters and [Xi] is known to have one of these, this is
| a reason for believing that it has the other. But this is quite untenable.
| Merely having a common character does not constitute a real connection;
| and those very writers virtually acknowledge this, in reducing law to
| uniformity, that is, to the possession of a common character, as a
| way of denying that "law" implies any real connection.
|
|
| You will remember that after speaking about atomic propositions
| What is a law, then? It is a formula to which real events truly conform.
| I pointed out two more complicated forms of propositions which
| By "conform", I mean that, taking the formula as a general principle,
| arise immediately on proceeding further than that: the 'first',
| if experience shows that the formula applies to a given event, then
| which I call molecular propositions, which I dealt with last time,
| the result will be confirmed by experience. But that such a general
| involving such words as "or", "and", "if", and the 'second' involving
| formula is a symbol, and more particularly, an asserted symbolical
| two or more verbs such as believing, wishing, willing, and so forth.
| proposition, is evident. Whether or not this symbol is a reality,
| even if not recognized by you or me or any generations of men, and
| whether, if so, it implies an Utterer, are metaphysical questions
| into which I will not now enter.
|
|
| In the case of molecular propositions it was not clear that we had to deal with
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 251-252
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 79-80.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 21===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc. (cont.)
| One distinguished writer seems to hold that, although events
| conform to the formula, or rather, although it conforms to the
| Truth of facts, yet it does not influence the facts. This comes
| perilously near to being pure verbiage; for, seeing that nobody
| pretends that the formula exerts a compulsive force on the events,
| what definite meaning can attach to this emphatic denial of the
| law's influencing the facts? The law had such mode of being as
| it ever has before all the facts had come into existence, for it
| might already be experientially known; and then the law existing,
| when the facts happen there is agreement between them and the law.
|
| What is it, then, that this writer has in mind? If it were not
| for the extraordinary misconception of the word "cause" by Mill,
| I should say that the idea of metaphysical sequence implied in that
| word, in "influence", and in other similar words was perfectly clear.
| Mill's singularity is that he speaks of the cause of a singular event.
| Everybody else speaks of the cause of a "fact", which is an element of
| the event. But, with Mill, it is the event in its entirety which is
| caused. The consequence is that Mill is obliged to define the cause
| as the totality of all the circumstances attending the event. This is,
| strictly speaking, the Universe of being in its totality. But any event,
| just as it exists, in its entirety, is nothing else but the same Universe
| of being in its totality. It strictly follows, therefore, from Mill's use
| of the words, that the only 'causatum' is the entire Universe of being and
| that its only cause is itself. He thus deprives the word of all utility.
|
| As everybody else but Mill and his school more or less clearly
| understands the word, it is a highly useful one. That which
| is caused, the 'causatum', is, not the entire event, but
| such abstracted element of an event as is expressible
| in a proposition, or what we call a "fact". The cause
| is another "fact". Namely, it is, in the first place,
| a fact which could, within the range of possibility,
| have its being without the being of the 'causatum';
| but, secondly, it could not be a real fact while
| a certain third complementary fact, expressed
| or understood, was realized, without the being
| of the causatum; and thirdly, although the
| actually realized causatum might perhaps be
| realized by other causes or by accident,
| yet the existence of the entire possible
| causatum could not be realized without
| the cause in question.
|
|
| I think that one might describe philosophical logic, the philosophical portion
| It may be added that a part of a cause, if a part in
| of logic which is the portion that I am concerned with in these lectures since
| that respect in which the cause is a cause, is also
| called a 'cause'. In other respects, too, the scope
| containing all the different forms that facts may have. I should prefer to
| of the word will be somewhat widened in the sequel.
| say "forms of facts" rather than "forms of propositions".
|
|
| To apply that to the case of molecular propositions which I dealt with
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 252
|
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 80.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 22===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc. (cont.)
| If the cause so defined is a part of the causatum, in the sense that
| the causatum could not logically be without the cause, it is called
| an 'internal cause'; otherwise, it is called an 'external cause'.
|
|
| Now I want to point out today that the facts that occur when one
| If the cause is of the nature of an individual thing or fact,
| and the other factor requisite to the necessitation of the
| 'causatum' is a general principle, I would call the cause
| a 'minor', or 'individuating', or perhaps a 'physical cause'.
| and I do not wish you to suppose that I pretend to deal
|
| in which judgment is spoken of in theory of knowledge, in which
|
|
| If I say "What day of the week is this?" and you say "Tuesday",
| If, on the other hand, it is the general principle which is
| there occurs in your mind at that moment the belief that this is
| regarded as the cause and the individual fact to which it is
| Tuesday. The thing I want to deal with today is the question:
| applied is taken as the understood factor, I would call the
| cause a 'major', or 'defining', or perhaps a 'psychical cause'.
|
|
| What is the form of the fact which occurs when a person has a belief?
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 252-253
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 80-81.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===NEKS. Note 23===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc. (cont.)
| The individuating internal cause is called the 'material cause'.
| Thus the integrant parts of a subject or fact form its 'matter',
| or material cause.
|
| The individuating external cause is called the 'efficient',
| or 'efficient cause'; and the causatum is called the 'effect'.
|
| The defining internal cause is called the 'formal' cause,
| or 'form'. All those facts which constitute the definition
| of a subject or fact make up its form.
|
| The defining external cause is called the 'final cause',
| or 'end'.
|
|
| Of course you see that the sort of obvious first notion that one would
| It is hoped that these statements will be found to hit
| naturally arrive at would be that a belief is a relation to the proposition.
| a little more squarely than did those of Aristotle and
| "I believe the proposition p." "I believe that today is Tuesday." "I believe
| the scholastics the same bull's eye at which they aimed.
| that two and two are four." Something like that. It seems on the face of it
| From scholasticism and the medieval universities, these
| as if you had there a relation of the believing subject to a proposition.
| conceptions passed in vaguer form into the common mind
| and vernacular of Western Europe, and especially so in
| England.
|
|
| That view won't do for various reasons which I shall go into. But you
| Consequently by the aid of these definitions I think
| have, therefore, got to have a theory of belief which is not exactly that.
| I can make out what it is that the writer mentioned
| has in mind in saying that it is not the law which
| that that belief does actually occur. The statement that it occurs is a
| influences, or is the final cause of, the facts,
| but the facts that make up the cause of the law.
| verbs, you may have any number greater than one. I may believe that Jones
| verbs. You may have any number, but you cannot have less than two.
|
|
| You will perceive that it is not only the proposition that has the two verbs,
| He means that the general fact which the law of gravitation
| but also the fact, which is expressed by the proposition, has two constituents
| expresses is composed of the special facts that this stone at
| corresponding to verbs. I shall call those constituents verbs for the sake
| such a time fell to the ground as soon as it was free to do so
| and its upward velocity was exhausted, that each other stone did
| objects which one denotes by verbs. Of course, that is strictly using the
| the same, that each planet at each moment was describing an ellipse
| word "verb" in two different senses, but I do not think it can lead to any
| having the centre of mass of the solar system at a focus, etc. etc.;
| confusion if you understand that it is being so used.
| so that the individual facts are the material cause of the general fact
| expressed by the law; while the propositions expressing those facts are
| the efficient cause of the law itself.
|
|
| This fact (the belief) is one fact. It is not like what you had in molecular
| This is a possible meaning in harmony with the writer's sect of thought;
| propositions where you had (say) "p or q". It is just one single fact that
| and I believe it is his intended meaning. But this is easily seen not
| you have a belief. That is obvious from the fact that you can believe a
| to be true. For the formula relates to all possible events of a given
| falsehood. It is obvious from the fact of false belief that you cannot
| description; which is the same as to say that it relates to all possible
| cut off one part; you cannot have:
| events. Now no collection of actual individual events or other objects of
| any general description can amount to all possible events or objects of that
| description; for it is possible that an addition should be made to that
| collection. The individuals do not constitute the matter of a general;
| those who with Kant, or long before him, said that they do were wanting in
| the keen edge of thought requisite for such discussions. On the contrary,
| the truth of the formula, its really being a sign of the indicated object,
| is the defining cause of the agreement of the individual facts with it.
|
|
| I believe / Socrates is mortal.
| Namely, this truth fulfills the first condition, which is that it might
| logically be although there were no such agreement. For it might be true,
| that is, contains no falsity, that whatever stone there might be on earth
| would have a real downward component [of] acceleration even although no stone
| actually existed on earth. It fulfills the second condition, that as soon as the
| other factor (in this case the actual existence of each stone on earth) was present,
| the result of the formula, the real downward component of acceleration would exist.
| Finally, it fulfills the third condition, that while all existing stones might
| be accelerated downwards by other causes or by an accidental concurrence of
| circumstances, yet the downward acceleration of every possible stone would
| involve the truth of the formula.
|
|
| There are certain questions that arise about such facts,
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 253-254
|
|
| On that question until fairly lately I should certainly not have
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| supposed that any doubt could arise. It had not really seemed to
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| me until fairly lately that that was a debatable point. I still
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| believe that there are facts of that form, but I see that it is
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 81-82.
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
</pre>
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
===NEKS. Note 24===
<pre>
...
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts?
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 254
|
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 82.
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
==NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia • Commentary==
===NEKS. Commentary Note 1===
<pre>
Here's one for all you Neo-Plots out there.
Rummaging about the web I find that the phrase
"Utter Indetermination" appears in the Enneads:
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts? (cont.)
| Everything the Soul engenders down to this point comes into being shapeless,
| and takes form by orientation towards its author and supporter: therefore
| the thing engendered on the further side can be no image of the Soul,
| since it is not even alive; it must be an utter Indetermination.
|
|
| Pragmatists and some of the American realists, the school whom one calls
| http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/plotenn/enn214.htm
Pretty scary ...
As I suspected, we'll probably end up hashing out the whole
KS/NE paper before we can get a clue what it's talking about.
Here's a sample of some previous encounters:
QUAGS. Questions About Genuine Signs
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/thread.html#268
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/thread.html#2926
01. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002658.html
02. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002659.html
03. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002662.html
04. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002926.html
QUAGS. Questions About Genuine Signs -- Commentary
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/thread.html#2923
01. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002923.html
02. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002929.html
03. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002930.html
04. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002931.html
05. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002932.html
QUAGS. Questions About Genuine Signs -- Discussion
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/thread.html#2663
01. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002663.html
02. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002664.html
03. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002665.html
04. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002666.html
05. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002668.html
06. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002669.html
07. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002670.html
QUIPS. Questions Involving Pure Symbols -- Discussion
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/thread.html#2602
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-June/thread.html#2766
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-July/thread.html#2866
00. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/thread.html#2927
24. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002690.html
74. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002927.html
It looks like this'll be one of those "eternal return" type questions.
I just hope it won't be one of those "eternal repetition" type issues.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 2===
<pre>
Let me try to bring some measure of concreteness to this discussion
of "various orders of determination or information" (VOODOI) and its
possible relation to "higher order propositional expressions" (HOPE's).
To keep things simple let's consider a discrete order of determinations
and put off worrying about a continuous order of determinations until we
have understood the discrete case well enough to deal with anything more.
Again for the sake of simplicity, let's start with a universe of discourse
that is constructed on the basis of just two predicates, let's say p and q.
Anything in this universe is determined with respect to these predicates by
saying whether p is true or false of it and whether q is true or false of it.
Thus we have the following four propositions of maximal determination:
0. (p)(q), meaning "not p and not q"
1. (p) q , meaning "not p and q"
2. p (q), meaning "p and not q"
| approximation that they would suggest would be that you believe truly when there
3. p q , meaning "p and q"
| is such an object and that you believe falsely when there is not. I do not mean
| they would say that exactly, but that would be the crude view from which they
It's customary to refer to these 4 propositions as the "cells" of
| would start. They do not seem to have grasped the fact that the objective side
the universe of discourse that is built on the predicates p and q.
| in belief is better expressed by a proposition than by a single word, and that,
| I think, has a great deal to do with their whole outlook on the matter of what
If we don't know enough to determine a thing to the full extent that's
| belief consists of. The object of belief in their view is generally, not
permitted by the predicates in this universe of discourse, then other
| relations between things, or things having qualities, or what not, but
propositions, of less than maximal determination, may serve to say
| just single things which may or may not exist. That view seems to me
how much we know about the thing in question.
| radically and absolutely mistaken.
For example, if we know that a thing is either p or q, but don't know
any more than that, then the proposition "p or q" pins it down to the
best of our knowledge. Using only negation and conjunction, we have:
((p)(q))
As we know, there are 16 distinct propositions that we can make
about any given thing, relative to the given frame of reference.
These 16 propositions exhaust the variety of things that can be
said in the language that we will call the "zeroth order logic"
based on p and q.
Thus we can express an order of determination, or a lack thereof,
that hesitates or vacillates among any number of the four "cells"
of the universe of discourse in view. That is all well and good,
but what if the order of our indetermination is not exactly that,
not to be measured by our vacillation among a subset of the above
four cells, but more like a state of indecision among some subset
of the 16 propositions, as if a hesitation among actual universes?
Next time we'll explore a way to express
the next higher order of indetermination,
or the next lower order of determination.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 3===
<pre>
Re: KS 1. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003063.html
In: KS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/thread.html#3063
In the matter of Theory and Practice, Peirce begins by explaining the
difference between theoretical propositions and practical propositions,
which he couches in the terms of a semiotic or sign relational framework.
We come almost immediately to several problems of interpretation, coming
to a head in the following passage:
| In the first place, a sign is not a real thing.
| It is of such a nature as to exist in 'replicas'.
| Look down a printed page, and every 'the' you see
| is the same word, every 'e' the same letter. A real
| thing does not so exist in replica. The being of a
| sign is merely 'being represented'. Now 'really being'
| and 'being represented' are very different. Giving to
| the word 'sign' the full scope that reasonably belongs
| to it for logical purposes, a whole book is a sign; and
| a translation of it is a replica of the same sign. A whole
| literature is a sign. The sentence "Roxana was the queen of
| Alexander" is a sign of Roxana and of Alexander, and though
| there is a grammatical emphasis on the former, logically the
| name "Alexander" is as much 'a subject' as is the name "Roxana";
| and the real persons Roxana and Alexander are 'real objects' of
| the sign.
|
|
| In the 'first' place there are a great many judgments you cannot possibly fit into
| Every sign that is sufficiently complete refers refers to sundry
| that scheme, and in the 'second' place it cannot possibly give any explanation to
| real objects. All these objects, even if we are talking of Hamlet's
| false beliefs, because when you believe that a thing exists and it does not exist,
| madness, are parts of one and the same Universe of being, the "Truth".
| the thing is not there, it is nothing, and it cannot be the right analysis of a
| But so far as the "Truth" is merely the 'object' of a sign, it is merely
| the Aristotelian 'Matter' of it that is so.
|
|
| This an objection to supposing that belief consists simply in relation
| C.S. Peirce, "Kaina Stoicheia", NEM 4, 238-239
| Also appears in "New Elements", EP 2, 303-304
At first it seems obvious enough that the Peirce who says
"a sign is not a real thing" is not the Peirce who speaks
as a Platonic or Scholastic realist, but one is using the
phrases "real thing" and "real object" in accord with the
more streetwise values that they bear in mundane parlance,
however pre-reflective and pre-critical those uses may be.
We may have some difficulty extending this street meaning
to the case of Hamlet's madness, but the problem does not
seem insurmountable in itself, as all the groundlings wot.
Read this way, Peirce is simply pointing out the familiar dual use of
the word "sign" to refer to a very concrete thing and also to a very
abstract thing, the relationship between the two being more or less
well treated in terms of the token/type relation. Here the tokens
or replicas are awarded the titular honor of a cave-internal sort
of reality, whereas in other lights, more cave-external, it'd be
the types or the equivalence classes of tokens that are said to
be the real realities. I think most folks know the variations
on this theme, all independently of the particular words that
are used to play it out, so I think it's safe to proceed on
the grounds of that prior understanding.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 4===
<pre>
Re: KS-COM 2. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003067.html
In: KS-COM. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/thread.html#3066
To save a few words in the remainder of this discussion, let's notate
| This means, we are told, that you start for the station at a certain time.
the "universe of discourse based on the predicates p and q" as [p, q].
The universe [p, q] is layed down in two layers:
| your train by running, your belief was true. If the train went at 10.23,
1. There is the set of 4 cells, that may be enumerated in terms of the
| you miss it, and your belief was false. That is the sort of thing that
basic propositions that describe them as {(p)(q), (p) q, p (q), p q},
| they would say constitutes belief. There is not a single state of mind
a set that it will be convenient to notate as <<p, q>>. Considered
| which consists in contemplating this eternal verity, that the train
in regard to its abstract type, <<p, q>> has the type of B^2 = B x B.
| starts at 10.25.
2. There is the set of 16 propositions on <<p, q>>, notated as <<p, q>>^.
Each of these propositions is a function of the form f : <<p, q>> -> B.
Thus the space of propositions <<p, q>>^ has the abstract type B^2 -> B.
In the notation just introduced we can say that [p, q] = {<<p, q>>, <<p, q>>^}.
It is important to note that each of the 4 cells in <<p, q>> corresponds so
uniquely to a proposition in <<p, q>>^ = <<p, q>> -> B that we shall seldom
bother to distinguish between them.
The most that we can pin down a thing in the universe [p, q] is by
giving one of the basic propositions, cells, or points in <<p, q>>.
When we find ourselves less certain than that, we can describe our
state of information about a thing by stating any one of the other
propositions in <<p, q>>^.
The thing to notice here is that the step to a lower order of determination
is associated with a passage from a space of points X, in this case <<p, q>>,
to a space of functions X -> B, in the present case <<p, q>>^ = <<p, q>> -> B.
This is the sort of step that we will iterate in order to reach
ever lower orders of determination, or to put it the other way,
ever higher orders of vacillation.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 5===
<pre>
The venn diagram shown below presents a familiar way of picturing
the universe of discourse [p, q]. The propositional expressions
inscribed in the cells represent the four elements of <<p, q>>.
The 16 propositions of the form <<p, q>> -> B can be pictured
as all the ways of shading the cells of the diagram, given
the two colors that correspond to the boolean values in B.
One observes that 4 cells shaded in 2 colors produces
2^4 = 16 different patterns altogether.
o-------------------------------------------------o
| ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` `o-----------o` `o-----------o` ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` / ` ` ` ` ` ` \ / ` ` ` ` ` ` \ ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` `/` ` ` ` ` ` ` `o` ` ` ` ` ` ` `\` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` / ` ` ` ` ` ` ` / \ ` ` ` ` ` ` ` \ ` ` ` |
| ` ` `/` ` ` ` ` ` ` `/` `\` ` ` ` ` ` ` `\` ` ` |
| ` ` o ` ` ` ` ` ` ` o ` ` o ` ` ` ` ` ` ` o ` ` |
| ` ` | ` ` ` ` ` ` ` | ` ` | ` ` ` ` ` ` ` | ` ` |
| ` ` | ` ` p (q) ` ` | p q | ` ` (p) q ` ` | ` ` |
| ` ` | ` ` ` ` ` ` ` | ` ` | ` ` ` ` ` ` ` | ` ` |
| ` ` o ` ` ` ` ` ` ` o ` ` o ` ` ` ` ` ` ` o ` ` |
| ` ` `\` ` ` ` ` ` ` `\` `/` ` ` ` ` ` ` `/` ` ` |
| ` ` ` \ ` ` ` ` ` ` ` \ / ` ` ` ` ` ` ` / ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` `\` ` ` ` ` ` ` `o` ` ` ` ` ` ` `/` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` \ ` ` ` ` ` ` / \ ` ` ` ` ` ` / ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` `o-----------o` `o-----------o` ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` (p) (q) ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` |
| ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` |
o-------------------------------------------------o
Each way of coloring the universe of discourse [p, q]
may be thought of as an actual state of that universe
or a contingent realization of its inherent potential.
This is just another way of interpreting the abstract
elements of <<p, q>> -> B, which can now be conceived
as "possible universes" of type [p, q].
Suppose we walk into the gallery of possible universes of type [p, q]
and find ourselves in a condition of indeterminate choice that ranges
over a particular subset of the 16 possible pictures. There are just
2^16 subsets of 16 things, in this case corresponding to the space of
propositions of type (<<p, q>> -> B) -> B, which are naturally enough
referred to as "higher order propositions" since they can be regarded
as propositions about propositions.
This brings us to the verge of the next higher order of indetermination.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 6===
<pre>
When Peirce starts talking about Aristotle's concept of entelechy
it brings to mind some of the issues that I was wrestling with in
my work on "Inquiry Driven Systems" or the "Inquiry Into Inquiry",
some of which is recorded at the Arisbe website, and some further
explorations of which are serialized at my Inquiry Archive. Here
is a pertinent selection:
Cf: IDS 114. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2004-May/001553.html
Cf: IDS 115. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2004-May/001554.html
Cf: IDS 116. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2004-May/001555.html
In: IDS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2004-May/thread.html#1434
I'll copy this much of it below, as it may do some of us
some good to consider these issues again in this setting.
1.3.9.3. The Formative Tension
The incidental arena or the informal context is presently described in
casual, derivative, and negative terms, simply as the "not yet formal",
and so this admittedly unruly region is currently depicted in ways that
suggest a purely unformed and a wholly formless chaos, which it is not.
But increasing experience with the formalization process can help one
to develop a better appreciation of the informal context, and in time
one can argue for a more positive characterization of this realm as
a truly "formative context". The formal domain is where risks are
contemplated, but the formative context is where risks are taken.
In this view, the informal context is more clearly seen as the off-stage
staging ground where everything that appears on the formal scene is first
assembled for a formal presentation. In taking this view, one steps back
a bit in one's imagination from the scene that presses on one's attention,
gets a sense of its frame and its stage, and becomes accustomed to see what
appears in ever dimmer lights, in effect, one is learning to reflect on the
more obvious actions, to read their pretexts, and to detect the motives that
end in them.
It is fair to assume that an agent of inquiry possesses a faculty of inquiry
that is available for exercise in the informal context, that is, without the
agent being required to formalize its properties prior to their initial use.
If this faculty of inquiry is a unity, then it appears as a whole on both
sides of the "glass", that is, on both sides of the imaginary line that
one pretends to draw between a formal arena and its informal context.
1.3.9.3. The Formative Tension (cont.)
Recognizing the positive value of an informal context as
an open forum or a formative space, it is possible to form
the alignments of capacities that are indicated in Table 5.
Table 5. Alignments of Capacities
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
| Formal | Formative |
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
| Objective | Instrumental |
| Passive | Active |
o-------------------o--------------o--------------o
| Afforded | Possessed | Exercised |
o-------------------o--------------o--------------o
This arrangement of capacities, based on the distinction between
possession and exercise that arises so naturally in this context,
stems from a root that is old indeed. In this connection, it is
instructive to compare these alignments with those that we find
in Aristotle's treatise 'On the Soul', a germinal textbook of
psychology that ventures to analyze the concept of the mind,
psyche, or soul to the point of arriving at a definition.
The alignments of capacites, analogous correspondences,
and illustrative materials outlined by Aristotle are
summarized in Table 6.
Table 6. Alignments of Capacities in Aristotle
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
| Matter | Form |
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
| Potentiality | Actuality |
| Receptivity | Possession | Exercise |
| Life | Sleep | Waking |
| Wax | Impression |
| Axe | Edge | Cutting |
| Eye | Vision | Seeing |
| Body | Soul |
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
| Ship? | Sailor? |
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
An attempt to synthesize the materials and the schemes that are given
in Tables 5 and 6 leads to the alignments of capacities that are shown
in Table 7. I do not pretend that the resulting alignments are perfect,
since there is clearly some sort of twist taking place between the top
and the bottom of this synthetic arrangement. Perhaps this is due to
the modifications of case, tense, and grammatical category that occur
throughout the paradigm, or perhaps it has to do with the fact that
the relations through the middle of the Table are more analogical
than categorical. For the moment I am content to leave all of
these paradoxes intact, taking the pattern of tensions and
torsions as a puzzle for future study.
Table 7. Synthesis of Alignments
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
| Formal | Formative |
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
| Objective | Instrumental |
| Passive | Active |
| Afforded | Possessed | Exercised |
| To Hold | To Have | To Use |
| Receptivity | Possession | Exercise |
| Potentiality | Actuality |
| Matter | Form |
o-------------------o-----------------------------o
1.3.9.3. The Formative Tension (concl.)
Due to the importance of Aristotle's account for every discussion that
follows it, not to mention for those that follow it without knowing it,
and because the issues that it raises arise repeatedly throughout this
project, I am going to cite an extended extract from the relevant text
(Aristotle, 'Peri Psyche', 2.1), breaking up the argument into a number
of individual premisses, stages, and examples.
Aristotle wrote (W.S. Hett translation):
| a. The theories of the soul (psyche)
| handed down by our predecessors have
| been sufficiently discussed; now let
| us start afresh, as it were, and try to
| determine (diorisai) what the soul is,
| and what definition (logos) of it will
| be most comprehensive (koinotatos).
|
| b. We describe one class of existing things as
| substance (ousia), and this we subdivide into
| three: (1) matter (hyle), which in itself is
| not an individual thing, (2) shape (morphe) or
| form (eidos), in virtue of which individuality
| is directly attributed, and (3) the compound
| of the two.
|
| c. Matter is potentiality (dynamis), while form is
| realization or actuality (entelecheia), and the
| word actuality is used in two senses, illustrated
| by the possession of knowledge (episteme) and the
| exercise of it (theorein).
|
|
| They would apply that even to the most abstract things.
| d. Bodies (somata) seem to be pre-eminently
| substances, and most particularly those
| which are of natural origin (physica),
| and one has the feeling that perhaps, if one thought it
| for these are the sources (archai)
| out long enough and became sufficiently aware of all
| from which the rest are derived.
| was a feasible view; but yet I do not 'feel' it
| feasible.
|
|
| It hangs together, of course, with the theory of neutral monism, with
| e. But of natural bodies some have life (zoe)
| the theory that the material constituting the mental is the same as the
| and some have not; by life we mean the
| material constituting the physical, just like the Post Office directory
| capacity for self-sustenance, growth,
| which gives you people arranged geographically and alphabetically. This
| and decay.
| whole theory hangs together with that. I do not mean necessarily that
|
| all the people that profess the one profess the other, but that the
| f. Every natural body (soma physikon), then,
| two do essentially belong together.
| which possesses life must be substance, and
| substance of the compound type (synthete).
|
| g. But since it is a body of a definite kind, viz.,
| having life, the body (soma) cannot be soul (psyche),
| for the body is not something predicated of a subject,
| but rather is itself to be regarded as a subject,
| i.e., as matter.
|
| h. So the soul must be substance in the sense of being
| the form of a natural body, which potentially has life.
| And substance in this sense is actuality.
|
| i. The soul, then, is the actuality of the kind of body we
| have described. But actuality has two senses, analogous
| to the possession of knowledge and the exercise of it.
|
| j. Clearly (phaneron), actuality in our present sense
| is analogous to the possession of knowledge; for both
| sleep (hypnos) and waking (egregorsis) depend upon the
| presence of the soul, and waking is analogous to the
| exercise of knowledge, sleep to its possession (echein)
| but not its exercise (energein).
|
| k. Now in one and the same person the
| possession of knowledge comes first.
|
| l. The soul may therefore be defined as the first actuality
| of a natural body potentially possessing life; and such
| will be any body which possesses organs (organikon).
|
| m. The parts of plants are organs too, though very
| simple ones: e.g., the leaf protects the pericarp,
| and the pericarp protects the seed; the roots are
| analogous to the mouth, for both these absorb food.
|
| n. If then one is to find a definition which will apply
| to every soul, it will be "the first actuality of
| a natural body possessed of organs".
|
| o. So one need no more ask (zetein) whether body and
| soul are one than whether the wax (keros) and the
| impression (schema) it receives are one, or in
| general whether the matter of each thing is
| the same as that of which it is the matter;
| for admitting that the terms unity and being
| are used in many senses, the paramount (kyrios)
| sense is that of actuality.
|
| p. We have, then, given a general definition
| of what the soul is: it is substance in
| the sense of formula (logos), i.e., the
| essence of such-and-such a body.
|
| q. Suppose that an implement (organon), e.g. an axe,
| were a natural body; the substance of the axe
| would be that which makes it an axe, and this
| would be its soul; suppose this removed, and
| it would no longer be an axe, except equivocally.
| As it is, it remains an axe, because it is not of
| this kind of body that the soul is the essence or
| formula, but only of a certain kind of natural body
| which has in itself a principle of movement and rest.
|
| r. We must, however, investigate our definition
| in relation to the parts of the body.
|
| s. If the eye were a living creature, its soul would be
| its vision; for this is the substance in the sense
| of formula of the eye. But the eye is the matter
| of vision, and if vision fails there is no eye,
| except in an equivocal sense, as for instance
| a stone or painted eye.
|
| t. Now we must apply what we have found true of the part
| to the whole living body. For the same relation must
| hold good of the whole of sensation to the whole sentient
| body qua sentient as obtains between their respective parts.
|
|
| If you are going to take that view, you have to explain away belief
| u. That which has the capacity to live is not the body
| and desire, because things of that sort do seem to be mental phenomena.
| which has lost its soul, but that which possesses
| its soul; so seed and fruit are potentially bodies
| of this kind.
| such things as belief, and reduce them to bodily behaviour; and your
| belief in a certain proposition will consist in the behaviour of your
|
|
| Truth and falsehood in that case consist in the relation of your
| v. The waking state is actuality in the same sense
| bodily behaviour to a certain fact, the sort of distant fact which
| as the cutting of the axe or the seeing of the eye,
| while the soul is actuality in the same sense as the
| is satisfactory in regard to that fact your belief is true, and when
| faculty of the eye for seeing, or of the implement for
| your behaviour is unsatisfactory in regard to that fact your belief
| doing its work.
| is false.
|
|
| The logical essence, in that view, will be a relation between two facts
| w. The body is that which exists potentially; but just as
| having the same sort of form as a causal relation, i.e. on the one hand
| the pupil and the faculty of seeing make an eye, so in
| there will be your bodily behaviour which is one fact, and on the other
| the other case the soul and body make a living creature.
|
|
| The thing you will get will be logically of the same form as you have
| x. It is quite clear, then, that neither the soul nor
| in cause, where you have "This fact causes that fact". It is quite
| certain parts of it, if it has parts, can be separated
| a different logical form from the facts containing two verbs that
| from the body; for in some cases the actuality belongs
| I am talking of today.
| to the parts themselves. Not but what there is nothing
| to prevent some parts being separated, because they are
| not actualities of any body.
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 84-86.
| y. It is also uncertain (adelon) whether the soul as an
| actuality bears the same relation to the body as the
| sailor (ploter) to the ship (ploion).
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| z. This must suffice as an attempt to determine
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| in rough outline the nature of the soul.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 7===
<pre>
Re: KS 3. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003075.html
In: KS-Oct. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/thread.html#3075
Cf: KS-Sep. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/thread.html#3063
In part:
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts? (concl.)
| But of these two movements, logic very properly
| prefers to take that of Theory as the primary one.
|
|
| I have naturally a bias in favour of the theory of neutral monism
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 240
| philosophy with the smallest possible apparatus, partly because
I confess to being a little puzzled by this emphasis.
| it diminishes the risk of error, because it is not necessary to
Does Peirce forget that logic is a normative science?
| deny the entities you do not assert, and therefore you run less
Does a normative science not work to know what ought
| risk of error the fewer entities you assume. The other reason --
to be done in actual practice to achieve our objects?
Well, I'll leave my puzzlement in suspension for now,
| in the number of entities increases the amount of work for
and continue with the reading in hopes of resolution.
| like the entities you used to assume. Therefore the
</pre>
| whole theory of neutral monism is pleasing to me,
| but I do find so far very great difficulty in
===NEKS. Commentary Note 8===
| believing it.
<pre>
Re: KS-COM 5. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003073.html
In: KS-COM. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/thread.html#3070
Cf: QUIPS-DIS 24. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-May/002690.html
Cf: QUAGS 4. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-August/002926.html
The use of "higher order propositional expressions" (HOPE's) is one way
to bring some order of concrete modeling -- concreteness being relative,
of course -- to bear on the following species of statements from Peirce:
| If we are to explain the universe, we must assume that there was in the
| beginning a state of things in which there was nothing, no reaction and no
| quality, no matter, no consciousness, no space and no time, but just nothing
| at all. Not determinately nothing. For that which is determinately not 'A'
| supposes the being of 'A' in some mode. Utter indetermination. But a symbol
| alone is indeterminate. Therefore Nothing, the indeterminate of the absolute
| beginning is a symbol.
|
| That is the way in which the beginning of things can alone be understood.
|
|
| You will find a discussion of the whole question in some
| What logically follows?
|
|
| I think it is extremely difficult, if you get rid of consciousness
| We are not to content ourselves with our instinctive sense of logicality.
| altogether, to explain what you mean by such a word as "this", what
| That is logical which comes from the essential nature of a symbol. Now it
| is of the essential nature of a symbol that it determines an interpretant,
| which is itself a symbol. A symbol, therefore, produces an endless series
| of interpretants.
| But what really happens is that we pick out certain facts, past and
| only I do not see how it can be done. I shall assume for the rest of
| this lecture that there are such facts as beliefs and wishes and so
|
|
|*Reprinted as: "On the Nature of Acquaintance", pp. 127-174
| Does anybody suspect all this of being sheer nonsense. 'Distinguo.'
| in Bertrand Russell, 'Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901-1950',
| There can, it is true, be no positive information about what antedated
| edited by Robert Charles Marsh, Routledge, London, UK, 1992.
| the entire Universe of being; because, to begin with, there was nothing
| to have information about. But the universe is intelligible; and therefore
| it is possible to give a general account of it and its origin. This general
| account is a symbol; and from the nature of a symbol, it must begin with the
| formal assertion that there was an indeterminate nothing of the nature of a
| symbol. This would be false if it conveyed any information. But it is
| the correct and logical manner of beginning an account of the universe.
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 86-87.
| As a symbol it produced its infinite series of interpretants, which in the
| beginning were absolutely vague like itself. But the direct interpretant
| of any symbol must in the first stage of it be merely the 'tabula rasa'
| for an interpretant. Hence the immediate interpretant of this vague
| Nothing was not even determinately vague, but only vaguely hovering
| between determinacy and vagueness; and 'its' immediate interpretant
| was vaguely hovering between vaguely hovering between vagueness and
| determinacy and determinate vagueness or determinacy, and so on,
| 'ad infinitum'. But every endless series must logically have a
| limit.
|
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| C.S. Peirce, "Kaina Stoicheia", NEM 4, 260-261
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Also appears in "New Elements", EP 2, 322-323
Very roughly speaking, we can model the condition of "vaguely hovering"
over a set F = {f_1, ..., f_m} of "states of (in)determination" f_j by
modeling each f_j as a proposition in a suitable universe of discourse,
and then by modeling the set F as a proposition one level higher than
the highest of the f_j in F. It will be best if we start with a few
simple examples, going back to our base camp in the universe [p, q],
just to see if everything works out in a moderately reasonable way.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 9===
<pre>
It appears that many misunderstandings of what's being said
at the end of Peirce's "Kaina Stoicheia"/"New Elements" essay
arise from a failure to keep in mind what was being said at the
beginning, especially with regard to the original model on which
Peirce's innovation is designed, to wit, the "Old Elements" of the
eponymous Euclid that motivated Peirce's own attempts at emulation.
Thus, as I have always suspected, it will be necessary to return to
the beginning in order to place the end, that is to say, the object,
in its proper perspective.
What the editors of the version in 'The Essential Peirce' say by
way of orientation is apt enough to bear repeating at this point:
| New Elements [Kaina Stoicheia]
|
| MS 517. [First published in NEM 4:235-63. This document was most
| probably written in early 1904, as a preface to an intended book on
| the foundations of mathematics.] Peirce begins with a discussion of
| "the Euclidean style" he planned to follow in his book. Euclid's
| 'Elements' presuppose an understanding of the logical structure
| of mathematics (geometry) that Peirce, in his "New Elements",
| wants to explicate.
|
|
| You cannot say that you believe 'facts', because your beliefs are
| Headnote to Selection 22, "New Elements", p. 300 in:
| sometimes wrong. You can say that you 'perceive' facts, because
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), 'The Essential Peirce,
| Selected Philosophical Writings, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
Da capo, al fine ...
| true account of the matter.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 10===
<pre>
We can now complete the following syllogism:
Peirce's "Kaina Stoicheia" is a Preface. (NEM 4, 235 & EP 2, Headnote)
This very same Preface is a Scholium. (NEM 4, 238 & EP 2, 303)
The main Subject of this Scholium is the Proposition. (NEM 4, 247 & EP 2, 311)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The main Subject of Peirce's "Kaina Stoicheia" is the Proposition. QED.
The pure symbol remains pure until proven otherwise.
The defense rests.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 11===
<pre>
Re: KS 16. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003265.html
In: KS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/thread.html#3183
It is only that untoward bent of reading, that reads Peirce
just barely in impatient anticipation of Frege, that could
manage to warp Peirce's avowedly "non-psychological" view
of logic into a supposed doctrine of "anti-psychologism".
Still, it's important to notice that Peirce employs his "logical microscope" --
the magnifying-glasses of the consulting detective, sheriff, posse comitatus,
judge, jury, the many long arms of conscientious, divine, and social sanction --
primarily in the service to distinguish the logical matter of the proposition
from a motley array of psycho-litigious-socio-politico-eschatological matters:
acceptance, acknowledgment, affidavit, affirmation, assent, assertion, avowal,
belief, certainty, certification, cognition, conation, consensus, credence,
denial, didaction, disposition, doubt, execution, expression, indication,
injunction, inquisition, judgment, knowledge, recognizance, salvation,
and so on and so forth, if not necessarily in that order, of course.
This has consequences that we must needs explore.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 12===
<pre>
Re: KS 17. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003274.html
In: KS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3274
For context:
KS-Sep. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/thread.html#3063
KS-Oct. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/thread.html#3075
KS-Nov. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/thread.html#3183
I call attention to the fact that Peirce here defines "belief", "affirmation",
and "judgment" -- as a habit of acting, an act of uttering, and a mental act,
respectively, and thus as what can only be called pragmatic-psychological
concepts -- partly with reference to the logical concepts of proposition,
proof, and truth, partly in terms of the partly formal partly material
concept of determination, and partly in terms of the broadly pragmatic,
psychological, sociological, semiotic, and linguistic concepts, not
all of them yet defined, of action, affect (contentedness), agency,
awareness, conation (desire), control, (in-)convenience, decision,
deliberation, disposition (tendency), event, exercise, force,
habit, interpretation, mind, pain (penalty), probability
(liability), product, result, simultaneity, society,
time, utterance, and volition.
I think that it requires further examination to sort out the relation
of logic, that is, formal (normative or quasi-necessary) semiotics,
to this more broadly conceived wildwood of descriptive semiotics.
| I have discussed the nature of belief
| in the 'Popular Science Monthly' for
| November 1877. On the whole, we may
| set down the following definitions:
|
|
| When I say "Obviously propositions are nothing" it is not perhaps
| A 'belief' in a proposition is a controlled and contented habit of
| quite obvious. Time was when I thought there were propositions,
| acting in ways that will be productive of desired results only if
| the proposition is true.
| I cannot believe they go about the real world. It is more
|
|
| One of the difficulties of the study of logic is that it is an
| An 'affirmation' is an act of an utterer of a proposition to an interpreter,
| exceedingly abstract study dealing with the most abstract things
| and consists, in the first place, in the deliberate exercise, in uttering
| imaginable, and yet you cannot pursue it properly unless you have
| the proposition, of a force tending to determine a belief in it in the
| a vivid instinct as to what is real. You must have that instinct
| mind of the interpreter. Perhaps that is a sufficient definition of it;
| rather well developed in logic. I think otherwise you will get
| but it involves also a voluntary self-subjection to penalties in the
| into fantastic things.
| event of the interpreter's mind (and still more the general mind of
| society) subsequently becoming decidedly determined to the belief
| at once in the falsity of the proposition and in the additional
| proposition that the utterer believed the proposition to be
| false at that time he uttered it.
|
|
| I think Meinong is rather deficient in just that instinct for reality.
| A 'judgment' is a mental act deliberately exercising a force tending to
| Meinong maintains that there is such an object as the round square only
| determine in the mind of the agent a belief in the proposition: to which
| should perhaps be added that the agent must be aware of his being liable
| to inconvenience in the event of the proposition's proving false in any
| he takes it that there is an object "the round square" and there is
| practical aspect.
| a predicate "fiction". No one with a sense of reality would so
| the round square as a constituent of that proposition.
|
|
| To suppose that in the actual world of nature there is a whole set of false
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 249-250
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 13===
<pre>
Rummaging about our Polis with Perseus, I find these glosses:
| theory that there is something quite logical,
| arithmos, as etym. of Stoichadeus, Sch.D.T.p.192 H.
| Stoicha^deus , eôs, ho, title of Zeus at Sicyon, Sch.D.T. p.192 H.
| Stoicheia , hê, epith. of Athena at Epidaurus, IG42(1).487.
| false proposition must, wherever it occurs,
| pulled to bits, and shown to be simply
|
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 87-88.
| Perseus at Tufts: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=%2396930
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Note 14===
<pre>
| Incidental Muse ~~~ Loreena McKennitt, ''Elemental'' ~~~
| http://www.quinlanroad.com/explorethemusic/elemental.asp
</pre>
</pre>
==NEKS. Commentary Work Area==
===NEKS. Commentary Work Area 1===
<pre>
Some folks have yet to discover the basic
fact of life that conception is an action.
</pre>
===NEKS. Commentary Work Area 2===
<pre>
Re: KS 15. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003264.html
In: KS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/thread.html#3183
In light of ever-renewed evidence that icons of argument and indices of reason,
the xylem and phloem of those hyloid lumberings that we log as syllogism, make
for a roughage that's vegetatively insufficient in its own rick to animate the
aimed for sign of interpretant entelechy, I'll pile more wood on the bael-fire.
</pre>
==NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia • Discussion==
===NEKS. Discussion Note 1===
| I can believe that "This is white" and "Two and two are four".
| They are quite different forms, yet one can believe both. The
<pre>
| actual occurrence can hardly be of exactly the same logical form
SL = Søren Lund
| of the propositions believed. Therefore it would seem that
Re: KS-COM 11. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003269.html
In: KS-COM. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/thread.html#3263
Recall that we are working in the context of Peirce's theory of sign relations,
where a proposition is a type of symbol, a symbol is a type of sign, a sign is
defined by its participation in a specified role of a particular sign relation,
and a sign relation in general is defined as a 3-adic relation that satisfies
a particular definition, for instance, this one:
| A sign is something, A, which brings something, B,
| its interpretant sign determined or created by it,
| into the same sort of correspondence with something,
| C, its object, as that in which itself stands to C.
|
|
| If you have "I believe p" and I believe q" those two facts, if p and q are
| C.S. Peirce, NEM 4, pp. 20-21, cf. p. 54 (1902).
|
|
| That means that belief itself cannot be treated as being a proper sort of
| C.S. Peirce, [Application to the Carnegie Institution], L 75, pp. 13-73 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by Charles S. Peirce,
| Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy', Mouton, The Hague, 1976. Available here:
| Arisbe Website, http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/library/bycsp/l75/l75.htm
You give us an able summary of a host of classical and modern aporias
that affect various attempts to say what a proposition is, but all of
those stagmas, so far as I can tell, appear to arise from the attempt
to form a particular order of "wholly useless abstractions" (WUA'a).
Given the obvious utility of many abstractions, that leaves us the
task of saying what exactly pushes an abstraction over the edge
of use. This can be difficult to diagnose, but it's easier to
diagnose than it is to identify the underlying causes thereof.
One factor that strikes me at present is the fact that some
abstractions are "absolutized" or "decontextualized" past
the point of usefulness, and the inclination to do that
appears to arise from a habit of "essentializing" that
may indeed be innate to our evolutionary inheritance,
or at least built into our most familiar languages.
Essentialism is the tendency of thought that tends to seek an explanation
of everything in "categories of unstructured things" (COUT's). In effect,
it tends to think that the end of explanation has been reached once we've
nominated the monadic predicate that classifies the thing to be explained.
This is such a persistent tendency of the human mind that it can be observed
to influence the thinking even of those who more reflectively might know better --
who might know better from reading Peirce, who might know better from being Peirce --
but it is not overall the thrust of Peirce's efforts in logic and semiotics, which
are indeed partly intended as a remedy for the condition of overweaned essentialism.
SL: Speaking of the proposition and Peirce's conception of it.
I think there is good reasons for attacking this curious
logical unit and even better to abandon it.
SL: If "proposition" is not a fancy term for "sentence", what is it? One suggestion
is that the proposition is the meaning of the sentence, or at least of the type
of sentence that grammarians call "declarative". But this will hardly do, for
the reasons already pointed out by the author of the 'Dissoi Logoi'. (The
author of the ancient text known as the 'Dissoi Logoi' points out that the
words "I am an initiate" may be uttered both by an initiate and by one who
is not (W. Kneale and M. Kneale, 'The Development of Logic', rev. ed.,
Oxford Clarendon, 1984, p. 16). If this is accepted, it seems that
we have to conclude either that one and the same form of words may
be both true and false, or else that what is true or false is not
the form of words itself. If the former is the case, it frustrates
any enterprise of formulating the principles of valid inference on
the basis of relations between sentences. If the latter is the case,
then the metalinguistic terms "true" and "false" cannot properly apply
to sentences at all, but must be deemed to apply to something else.
Western logic chose the latter option, and thereby conjured into
existence what was later called the "proposition".) That is to say,
if the grounds for rejecting the sentence are valid (i.e. that the
same sentence can be uttered on one occasion to express a truth, but
on another occasion to express a falsehood), then the objection must
carry over to the meaning of the sentence, unless we are prepared to
divorce the meaning from the sentence. But if we do that, we have in
effect ushered in two even more mysterious metalinguistic entities, i.e.
sentences without (permanent) meanings, and sentence-meaning that float
free of their sentences. It is difficult to see where the explanatory
gain lies, let alone how the two cohere.
SL: Another suggestion is that the proposition is the use
made of the (declarative) sentence. Thus if A and B both
utter the sentence I am an initiate, they may be said to be
putting it to different uses; viz in one case to claim that A
is an initiate, and in the other to claim that B is an initiate.
But this does not get us much further either. For all that has
been achieved here is the proposal of an arbitrarily restricted
employment of the term use. When we investigate the nature of
the restriction, the "use" of the sentence turns out to be
whatever it is that results in something true or false --
e.g. A's claim or B's claim. Here one metalinguistic
term (use) simply hides behind another (claim).
SL: Is the "proposition", then, more plausibly regarded as what it is
that is claimed when a claim is made, asserted when an assertion is
made, stated when a statement is made, etc.? But here we start another
metalinguistic wild goose chase. For claim, assertion and statement are
all metalinguistic terms with no better credentials than proposition itself.
To define the proposition as the "object" or "content" of claims, assertions,
statements, etc. is simply to substitute one obscurity for another.
SL: Why do these and similar attempts to rescue the proposition all come to grief
in this way? Because what is being attempted is a metalinguistic impossibility.
The source of the trouble can be traced back to the original culprit, i.e. the
sentence, deemed to be unsuitable as the basis for logic. The trouble is that
the sentences belong to particular languages (English, Greek, Latin, etc.).
What the logician seeks to substitute for the sentence is an entity which will
afford the same scope for identification, reidentification, generalization and
classification, but independently of the particular languages or words used.
The trouble is that this cannot be done -- or at least, not within the
Western metalinguistic framework. For that framework only allows us
to identify propositions, statements, assertions, etc. by citing
some sentence or part of a sentence.
SL: The moment this strategy fails, any formalization of logic collapses.
In other words, the logician cannot, under pain of undermining the
whole professional enterprise, claim that there are propositions
that cannot be unambiguously expressed in words.
SL: Herculean efforts to move this obstacle merely show how immovable it is.
For instance, some theorists have conjured up an entity which is supposed
to be what there is in common between an English declarative sentence and
its correct translation into any (or all) other language(s). This proposal
is either vacuous or circular. For then either there are no propositions at
all or else we are off after another metalinguistic will-o'-the wisp, namely
the criteria for "correct translation".
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 2===
<pre>
BM = Bernard Morand
BM: I think I have been unable to understand clearly
what is really at stake in the dispute between
Jon and Joe on the matter of pure symbols,
despite the large exchange of messages
on the topic.
Aside from the focal issue, which I will reserve until I can get focussed on it again,
I believe that there are most likely constitutionally different attitudes as to what
constitutes a definition, a theory, and a science. If logic is a normative science,
or, as Peirce says, "formal semiotics", and if there is to be a part of semiotics
that is a science, then it's very likely to undergo the sort of development that
other sciences have enjoyed. In other sciences, there is a division of labor
where mathematical models are developed in a speculative fashion, taking off
from and being brought home again to practical application. In that world,
definitions are equivalent explications of a concept, that is, necessary
and sufficient conditions for falling under a concept. Definitions of
this sort, once a good portion of the research community accepts them,
have a character of "standing on their own feet". This means that
they serve as a platform for generating all sorts of never-before
suspected consequences, that can be explored by deductive means,
and also evaluated for empirical adequacy, uberty, and truth.
Measured against that scientific standard, which is well understood in
all of the developed sciences, only a few of the so-called "definitions"
of signs are real definitions, the sorts of formulations that are clear
and explicit enough to draw any necessary conclusions from. Most of the
rest are more properly called "descriptions", and they fall into the dual
classes of (1) sufficient descriptions, that say things which are true of
special classes of signs, and (2) necessary descriptions, that say things
which are true of all signs, but which are also true of many things that
are not signs. But only those descriptions which are both necessary and
sufficient count as real definitions. Of course, a good definition must
also have many other virtues in order to support a consistent, effective,
and empirically adequate scientific theory.
This definition of definition will tend to be dismissed in undeveloped sciences,
and by many brands of philosophies -- and of course there are many domains where
we are still mainly arguing 'toward' definitions rather than mainly 'from' them --
so it's a matter of opinion where we are in semiotics today. For my part I am
content with a few of Peirce's more genuine definitions of signs, and I have
been busy reasoning on their basis ever since I first came to notice them.
On that basis, my main reason for thinking that there are sign relations
that do not involve icons or indices is simply that I can see no way to
deduce the involvement of icons or indices by necessary reasoning from
Peirce's most genuine and most general definitions of sign relations,
and so far nobody has even suggested a plausible way of doing this.
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 3===
<pre>
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 2. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003282.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
Replies interspersed.
JP: Would you give me an example of one of Peirce's genuine, necessary and sufficient,
descriptions of a sign, and perhaps for the purpose of contrast one of his
non-genuine definitions that fails to meet these criteria. Also would
you give me the necessary and sufficient conditions for discerning
which is which.
Yes, if you Google(TM) -- or Transcendental Meditate (TM) if you prefer --
on +Awbrey "Sign Relation" and its pluralization (Google has taken lately
to using fuzzy conjunctions, so you now have to put in the "+" to force the
old-fangled logical conjunction), you'll get my e-tire e-lected e-corpus of
writings on the subject, but to make a long story clear I can do no better
than recommend the standards of clarity demanded by my co-author in this
'Hermeneutics and Human Science' conference paper from 1992, revised for
the journal 'Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines' in 1995:
| Jon Awbrey & Susan Awbrey, "Interpretation as Action: The Risk of Inquiry"
| http://www.chss.montclair.edu/inquiry/fall95/awbrey.html
| NB. The reference to "Habermas" should be "Gadamer".
In most of those places I will probably allude to the dynamic duo of variants of
the definition in NEM 4 as being my pets for adequacy, clarity, and completeness.
One of the reasons that I remember those so fondly is that it wasn't until rather
late, when I chanced on a copy of the NEM volumes in a used book store in the mid
80's and was actually fortunate enough to have the spare cash on hand to buy them.
I have to tell you that up until that time I had always wondered why Peirce never
bothered to define this most important concept of a sign -- I know, but only now,
that this will sound shocking to many people, but they would need to understand
that the only definition of definition that had been engrained into my engrams
was the one that I knew from logic and math courses, and since it's so common
in loose speech and writing for all of us to say "definition" when we really
mean "something that's more or less true of a special case of the thing",
I had probably developed the automatic habit of reading the looser uses
as "descriptions", not true "definitions". That was my consciousness.
I made the mistake of going to bed early last night,
which only led to my waking up at 3 AM, and so I'll
need to break fast for coffee before I can continue.
</pre>
===Note 2===
===NEKS. Discussion Note 4===
<pre>
<pre>
===Note 3===
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 3. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003296.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
Replies interspersed.
JP: Would you give me an example of one of Peirce's genuine, necessary and sufficient,
descriptions of a sign, and perhaps for the purpose of contrast one of his
non-genuine definitions that fails to meet these criteria. Also would
you give me the necessary and sufficient conditions for discerning
which is which.
So let me haul out the "Carnegie" definitions of a sign relation one more time
and try to tell you why I think they ought to win friends and influence people.
Here's the first link that came up on Google:
===Note 2===
SR. Sign Relations
SR. http://forum.wolframscience.com/showthread.php?threadid=647
| A sign is something, 'A',
| On Propositions: What They Are and How They Mean (1919)
| which brings something, 'B',
| its 'interpretant' sign
| determined or created by it,
| into the same sort of correspondence
| with something, 'C', its 'object',
| as that in which itself stands to 'C'.
|
|
| Let us illustrate the content of a belief
| C.S. Peirce, NEM 4, pp. 20-21, cf. p. 54, also available here:
| http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/library/bycsp/l75/l75.htm
| What is happening?
More details on how the definition of a sign relation bears on
the definition of logic are given in the contexts of this text:
| On the Definition of Logic [Version 1]
|
|
| (1) Images, say, of the visual appearance of rain,
| Logic will here be defined as 'formal semiotic'.
| the feeling of wetness, the patter of drops,
| A definition of a sign will be given which no more
| interrelated, roughly, as the sensations
| refers to human thought than does the definition
| would be if it were raining, i.e., there
| of a line as the place which a particle occupies,
| is a complex 'fact composed of images',
| part by part, during a lapse of time. Namely,
| having a structure analogous to that
| a sign is something, 'A', which brings something,
| of the objective fact which would
| 'B', its 'interpretant' sign determined or created
| make the belief true.
| by it, into the same sort of correspondence with
| something, 'C', its 'object', as that in which it
| itself stands to 'C'. It is from this definition,
| together with a definition of "formal", that I
| deduce mathematically the principles of logic.
| I also make a historical review of all the
| definitions and conceptions of logic, and show,
| not merely that my definition is no novelty, but
| that my non-psychological conception of logic has
| 'virtually' been quite generally held, though not
| generally recognized. (CSP, NEM 4, 20-21).
|
|
| (2) There is 'expectation', i.e.,
| On the Definition of Logic [Version 2]
|
|
| (3) There is a relation between (1) and (2),
| Logic is 'formal semiotic'. A sign is something,
| making us say that (1) is "what is expected".
| 'A', which brings something, 'B', its 'interpretant'
| This relation also demands investigation.
| sign, determined or created by it, into the same
|
| sort of correspondence (or a lower implied sort)
| The most important thing about a proposition is that, whether
| with something, 'C', its 'object', as that in
| it consists of images or of words, it is, whenever it occurs, an
| which itself stands to 'C'. This definition no
| actual fact, having a certain analogy -- to be further investigated --
| more involves any reference to human thought than
| with the fact which makes it true or false. A word-proposition, apart
| does the definition of a line as the place within
| which a particle lies during a lapse of time.
| image-proposition has an objective reference dependent upon the
| It is from this definition that I deduce the
| principles of logic by mathematical reasoning,
| and by mathematical reasoning that, I aver, will
| support criticism of Weierstrassian severity, and
| that is perfectly evident. The word "formal" in
| the definition is also defined. (CSP, NEM 4, 54).
|
|
| Russell, OP, p. 309.
| Charles Sanders Peirce,
|'The New Elements of Mathematics', Volume 4,
| Edited by Carolyn Eisele, Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
Partly I like these statements because they place the
matter of defining "sign" within its due contexts of
defining "formal" and defining "logic", which helps
to "comprehend", in both senses of that term, some
of the purposes and utilities of the definition.
With respect to the question of contrast, Peirce in this instance
explictly contrasts this definition with the most popular host of
sufficient but not necessary descriptions, namely, those that use
some of our common but typically unexamined introspections and/or
intuitions about our own psychological processes in order to fill
in a motley assortment of intuitive blind spots and logical holes
in the description. This affords a significant correction to the
psychologically-biased descriptions, for instance, those deriving
from the "New List" account.
But probably the most important feature of this definition is that
it does not invoke too large a variety of undefined terms as a part
of its try at definition, and the few significant terms that it does
pass the buck to, like "correspondence" and "determination", are ones
for which we find fairly fast definitions elsewhere in Peirce's works.
The reason why these criteria are important is that they give us what we need
in order to carry out any measure of deductive or necessary reasoning on the
basis of the definition alone -- the "standing on its own feet" character
of a genuine definition.
</pre>
</pre>
==SABI. Synthetic/Analytic = Boundary/Interior?==
===NEKS. Discussion Note 5===
<pre>
<pre>
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 4. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003297.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
Replies interspersed.
JP: Would you give me an example of one of Peirce's genuine, necessary and sufficient,
descriptions of a sign, and perhaps for the purpose of contrast one of his
non-genuine definitions that fails to meet these criteria. Also would
you give me the necessary and sufficient conditions for discerning
which is which.
I've given what I think is one of Peirce's better definitions of a sign relation.
It is by no means perfect, but it does provide enough of a basis to start up the
business of drawing necessary conclusions. The nice thing about a good-enough
definition, if you catch my object-relational drift, is that it affords us
the ontological security to begin thinking for ourselves, as we may hope
to do in scientific inquiry, instead of constantly needing to run back
to our primal source for the assurance of some scriptural quotation
that we have not strayed from the path of right-group-thinking and
remain in conformity with the established doctrine, in that most
likely exaggerated caricature of the medieval seminary scholar,
but just as likely a graphic icon with a hint of truth to it.
As I've indicated, some of the descriptions that fall short of this standard
are those that rely on undefined psychological or sociological notions, for
all the possibility of their still being useful in application to specific
subjects, when taken with the due grain of salt. Other descriptions that
tend to lead us astray are those that are afflicted with the residual
biases of essentialism, in spite of all the work that Peirce did to
make clear that the minimal unit of description is a sign relation,
not the isolated sign in itself, which is a meaningless concept.
With respect to the last part of your question, yes, we can give
a logically necessary and sufficient definition of "definition".
For instance, the following from Peirce will do as well as any:
| A 'definition' is the logical analysis of a predicate in general terms.
He immediately elaborates this definition of definition as follows:
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas
| It has two branches, the one asserting that the definitum is
| applicable to whatever there may be to which the definition is
| applicable; the other (which ordinarily has several clauses),
| that the definition is applicable to whatever there may be to
| which the definitum is applicable. 'A definition does not
| assert that anything exists.'
|
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], NEM 4, 237
|
| C.S. Peirce, ["Kaina Stoicheia"], MS 517 (1904), pp. 235-263 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by
| Charles S. Peirce, Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy',
| Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
|
|
| The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most
| Cf. "New Elements", pp. 300-324 in 'The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.
What we cannot provide so easily is a definition of a 'good' definition,
because that is more properly an applied, empirical, pragmatic matter,
not just a logical or a mathematical question. Here we are "reduced"
to "holism", whereby only models as a whole of theories as a whole
can be judged by their empirical fertility and logical integrity.
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 6===
<pre>
JA = Jon Awbrey
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 5. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003298.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
Supplying a missing article:
JA: What we cannot provide so easily is a definition of a 'good' definition,
because that is more properly an applied, empirical, pragmatic matter,
of a chance of actually making sense someday, if hardly come what may.
not just a logical or a mathematical question. Here we are "reduced"
to "holism", whereby only models as a whole of theories as a whole
can be judged by their empirical fertility and logical integrity.
Replies interspersed.
JP: I don't mean to sound so confrontational or abrupt. Fact is I seem to recall
you have already posted (maybe a number of times) some of what you felt were
Peirce's most useful sign definitions. So what I'm really trying to ask is
how can we separate our sign selection criteria from our preconceptions of
what a sign is. My concern is that our definitions may beg the questions
we hope they will help us answer. Just as every question presupposes an
assertion that is being doubted, it seems to me that every definition
presupposes a question that is being answered.
I just now notice that I had posted one at the top of this discussion thread,
and had already forgotten it, partly because I did not get my copy back from
the Peirce List -- I sure hope this isn't what made Soren so irate that time --
anyway here's a link to an archive copy:
KS-DIS 1. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003272.html
I'm not quite sure what you're asking, where the emphasis is meant to be
when you say: "how can we separate our sign selection criteria from our
preconceptions of what a sign is". If by "begging the question" you are
saying that a definition evades the question by assuming what's supposed
to be proved, I don't see how that is, as definitions aren't supposed to
prove anything, only supply a potential clarification of one thing meant
by a term. But if you are emphasizing the difference between unexamined
preconception and clarifying "logical analysis of a predicate in general
terms", in Peirce's phrase, then that again is just what a definition is
supposed to be doing.
JP: Sitting here writing this, Jon, I've come up with what is perhaps a more helpful
question for me -- would you explain a bit more (in so far as possible in layman's
terms for me) why you are trying to translate Peirce's definitions into some sort
of graphic formalization. I don't really understand your goal. I guess in part
what I don't understand is what is meant by a formal definition if in fact that
is part of your goal. I realize you are putting a lot of care into what you
are doing and are trying to move in careful well considered small steps.
That much I think I understand and appreciate. But I don't understand
your methodological goal. My sense is you are attempting some sort
of formalization but I don't really know what constitutes a formal
definition -- what it achieves and what it avoids. I'm not trying
to trap you into some premature formulations -- I just want to get
a better understanding in very informal terms for starters of what
your general methodological goal is so that maybe I can better
understand the steps you are taking. Even off line if you
don't want to be held accountable for some very quick and
dirty, off hand, rough translation of your methodological
goals designed solely for a friend who is largely clueless.
For this one I will have to hunt up that old thinking cap and get back to you ...
<pre>
P.S. I don't know why the Internet has been so funky the
last couple of weeks -- Sue said there was some kind of
major D.O.S. attack that had their servers bogged down
for a while, or maybe it's just the traffic from the
<insert your denominational festivity>'s holiday
online shopping frenzy -- but if I don't answer
you or anybody for a day or so I won't mind if
you send me a copy by my own email address.
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 7===
<pre>
JA = Jon Awbrey
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 4. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003297.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
In substance:
| 1. Background for Analyticity
| A sign is something, A, which brings something, B,
| its interpretant sign determined or created by it,
| into the same sort of correspondence with something,
| C, its object, as that in which itself stands to C.
| need of clarification as does the notion of analyticity
| he makes of the notion of analyticity than from his definition of it, can be
| restated thus: a statement is analytic when it is true by virtue of meanings
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 20-21.
| C.S. Peirce, NEM 4, pp. 20-21, cf. p. 54 (1902).
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| C.S. Peirce, [Application to the Carnegie Institution], L 75, pp. 13-73 in:
| Carolyn Eisele (ed.), 'The New Elements of Mathematics by Charles S. Peirce,
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| Volume 4, Mathematical Philosophy', Mouton, The Hague, 1976. Available here:
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
| Arisbe Website, http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/library/bycsp/l75/l75.htm
JA: More details on how the definition of a sign relation bears on
the definition of logic are given in the contexts of this text:
| On the Definition of Logic [Version 1]
| 1. Background for Analyticity (cont.)
|
|
| Meaning, let us remember, is not to be identified with naming.
| Logic will here be defined as 'formal semiotic'.
| Frege's example of "Evening Star" and "Morning Star", and Russell's
| A definition of a sign will be given which no more
| of "Scott" and "the author of 'Waverley'", illustrate that terms can
| refers to human thought than does the definition
| name the same thing but differ in meaning. The distinction between
| of a line as the place which a particle occupies,
| meaning and naming is no less important at the level of abstract
| part by part, during a lapse of time. Namely,
| terms. The terms "9" and "the number of the planets" name one
| a sign is something, 'A', which brings something,
| and the same abstract entity but presumably must be regarded as
| 'B', its 'interpretant' sign determined or created
| unlike in meaning; for astronomical observation was needed, and
| by it, into the same sort of correspondence with
| not mere reflection on meanings, to determine the sameness of the
| something, 'C', its 'object', as that in which it
| entity in question.
| itself stands to 'C'. It is from this definition,
| together with a definition of "formal", that I
| deduce mathematically the principles of logic.
| I also make a historical review of all the
| definitions and conceptions of logic, and show,
| not merely that my definition is no novelty, but
| that my non-psychological conception of logic has
| 'virtually' been quite generally held, though not
| generally recognized. (CSP, NEM 4, 20-21).
|
|
| The above examples consists of singular terms, concrete and
| On the Definition of Logic [Version 2]
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 21.
| Logic is 'formal semiotic'. A sign is something,
|
| 'A', which brings something, 'B', its 'interpretant'
| W.V. Quine,
| sign, determined or created by it, into the same
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| sort of correspondence (or a lower implied sort)
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| with something, 'C', its 'object', as that in
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
| which itself stands to 'C'. This definition no
| more involves any reference to human thought than
| does the definition of a line as the place within
| which a particle lies during a lapse of time.
| It is from this definition that I deduce the
| principles of logic by mathematical reasoning,
| and by mathematical reasoning that, I aver, will
| support criticism of Weierstrassian severity, and
| that is perfectly evident. The word "formal" in
| the definition is also defined. (CSP, NEM 4, 54).
|
| Charles Sanders Peirce,
|'The New Elements of Mathematics', Volume 4,
| Edited by Carolyn Eisele, Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
JP: I don't want to lose the moment so I'm risking accuracy/depth etc. for haste --
JP: In immediately above definition I notice particularly two comments.
One is the remark about correspondence "(or a lower implied sort)"
and the other is the reference to a definition of "formal". I'm
thinking that correspondence is either iconic or indexical and
that a lower implied sort of correspondence has at least the
same function. And I'm also wondering if you might have
off hand a reference to Peirce's definition of formal
ref in his comment.
Here is the relevant part of the second variant:
| Logic is 'formal semiotic'. A sign is something, 'A',
| which brings something, 'B', its 'interpretant' sign,
| determined or created by it, into the same sort of
| correspondence (or a lower implied sort) with
| something, 'C', its 'object', as that in
| which itself stands to 'C'.
I took the "lower implied sort" as modifying the "same"
in "the same sort of correspondence", and I further took
the word "implied" as intended to generalize the definition
by weakening the condition in question, much in the way that
we would weaken the "sameness" of the equivalence "<=>" into
the lower implied sort of the implication "=>". I will think
about the reading of "lower" as "degenerate" as in the castes
of icons and indices, but the "implied" seems to rule that out,
just off hand, as being as sign does not imply being either one.
The "correspondence" I take in the sense of the phrase "triple correspondence"
that he uses elsewhere for a 3-adic relation, but definitely not anything like
a one-to-one correspondence, which is a 2-adic relation, and thus not intended
to suggest any hint of a "correspondence theory" of meaning or truth. In this
way of reading it, the "correspondence" is just a rhetorical alternate for the
sign relation itself. This interpretation also comports with that "recursive"
definition of the sign relation that Peirce often gives.
A little bit under the weather today --
we've been in the deep freeze for
a couple of weeks hereabouts --
so I'll need to take a rest.
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 8===
<pre>
JA = Jon Awbrey
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 7. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003300.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
JA: Partly I like these statements because they place the
matter of defining "sign" within its due contexts of
defining "formal" and defining "logic", which helps
to "comprehend", in both senses of that term, some
of the purposes and utilities of the definition.
JA: With respect to the question of contrast, Peirce in this instance
explictly contrasts this definition with the most popular host of
sufficient but not necessary descriptions, namely, those that use
some of our common but typically unexamined introspections and/or
intuitions about our own psychological processes in order to fill
in a motley assortment of intuitive blind spots and logical holes
in the description. This affords a significant correction to the
psychologically-biased descriptions, for instance, those deriving
from the "New List" account.
JP: Ha! Yes, I've always thought that the New List relied a bit on unexamined
psychological notions such as "attention" but then again I wonder if any
human endeavor (inquiry, defintion, thought or whatever) can completely
escape this sort of reliance. Being a psychologist (whatever that is)
this has never bothered me. In fact it just now occurs to me that that
for me is a good account of what I mean when I say I am a psychologist --
that for me what is left undefined or the starting point if you will --
is what in common parlance people mostly call psychological.
I have no brief against psychology -- it is a fascinating study, one of those
that I passed through several times in the "cycle of majors" that I had as an
undergrad and even spent a parallel life during the 80's taking a Master's in.
And I do not confound "psychological" or even "introspective" with "unexamind" --
it's merely that many of our most intuitive concepts remain as yet "primitive" --
in both the "logical undefind" and the "savage mind" senses of the word. And
it's entirely appropriate to use the concepts that we have until we arrive at
clearer and distincter ideas, as the saying goes -- like you say, there is no
escaping that, not at the outset anyways.
JP: It's always struct me that Peirce's eschewing of psychologogism
was no big deal -- mostly just a reaction to the excesses of the
psychologizing in vogue at the time he was writing. Something
psychologists of the time eventually reacted against (to the
point of excesses in the other direction) themselves.
"Struct" -- a sly alusion to Aristotle's 'pathemeta'
and the classical theory of being tutored by nature,
the mode of instruction via hard knocks impressions.
I like it, ergo, I think I'll steal it.
JA: But probably the most important feature of this definition is that
it does not invoke too large a variety of undefined terms as a part
of its try at definition, and the few significant terms that it does
pass the buck to, like "correspondence" and "determination", are ones
for which we find fairly fast definitions elsewhere in Peirce's works.
JA: The reason why these criteria are important is that they give us what we need
in order to carry out any measure of deductive or necessary reasoning on the
basis of the definition alone -- the "standing on its own feet" character
of a genuine definition.
JA: To be continued ...
JP: Looking forward to that!
WOWYWF, somebody may be keeping a list ...
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 9===
<pre>
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 4. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003297.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
I see that the following query fell to
the cutting room floor of my "attention"
somewhere in the process of cut and haste.
JP: And I'm also wondering if you might have
off hand a reference to Peirce's definition
of formal ref[erred to?] in his comment.
The one that comes to mind, the way that I'm forced to recall most
things these days, by Googling on +Awbrey +Peirce "Quasi-Necessary"
is this one:
Cf: SR 3. http://forum.wolframscience.com/showthread.php?postid=2395#post2395
In: SR. http://forum.wolframscience.com/showthread.php?threadid=647
| 2. Definition (cont.)
| Logic, in its general sense, is, as I believe I have shown, only another
| name for 'semiotic' [Greek: 'semeiotike'], the quasi-necessary, or formal,
| doctrine of signs. By describing the doctrine as "quasi-necessary", or
| formal, I mean that we observe the characters of such signs as we know,
| and from such an observation, by a process which I will not object to
| naming Abstraction, we are led to statements, eminently fallible, and
| therefore in one sense by no means necessary, as to what 'must be' the
| characters of all signs used by a "scientific" intelligence, that is to say,
| by an intelligence capable of learning by experience. As to that process of
| abstraction, it is itself a sort of observation. The faculty which I call
| abstractive observation is one which ordinary people perfectly recognize,
| but for which the theories of philosophers sometimes hardly leave room.
| It is a familiar experience to every human being to wish for something
| quite beyond his present means, and to follow that wish by the question,
| "Should I wish for that thing just the same, if I had ample means to gratify it?"
| To answer that question, he searches his heart, and in doing so makes what I term
| an abstractive observation. He makes in his imagination a sort of skeleton diagram,
| or outline sketch, of himself, considers what modifications the hypothetical state
| of things would require to be made in that picture, and then examines it, that is,
| 'observes' what he has imagined, to see whether the same ardent desire is there to
| be discerned. By such a process, which is at bottom very much like mathematical
| reasoning, we can reach conclusions as to what 'would be' true of signs in all
| cases, so long as the intelligence using them was scientific. (CP 2.227).
|
|
| Definition is not, indeed, an activity exclusively of philologists.
| Charles Sanders Peirce, 'Collected Papers', CP 2.227,
| Editor Data: From An Unidentified Fragment, c. 1897.
P.S. I just now got your message from 7:59
this morning, but will save it for tomorrow.
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 10===
| forms be properly describable as synonymous, is far from clear; but,
<pre>
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 3. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003296.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
JP: An early response to an early response. Ah yes, of course, I've read your paper
on interpretation as action before -- but apparently now I'm ready to read it
with more understanding and profit. Strange how some things that I just
glossed over before (thinking them unnecessary filler) now jump out at
me as key concepts! Reminds me of Joe's recent comments about how
successive iterations of philosophical inquiry (in this case my
own) legitimately must keep revisiting old "settled" issues in
the light of new understandings. So I'm going to give your
paper a fresh slow read -- and thanks for the re-minder!
I look forward to any further comments you may wish
to add.
A random response to a random distribution.
Thanks for the once or thrice over. And I
will not reguard it a hermeneutic violence
if you look beneath the subtitles and risk
the wine-dark see-change of look-out-world
that every old grit of your hermenaut wits.
But serially, folks, things take care of themselves as far as raising new doubts.
It's what we do to after that that makes all the difference in styles of inquiry.
Does our peerage into the skies open eyes, or refuse to peer through the 'scopes?
Does our revistation of old friends and familiars bring about a truly new vision,
or merely the sort of apologetic revisal that led Henry Ford to say that History
is post hoc revisionary casuistry of a specious quo, or something to that effect?
Think of a real example, say Galileo, Bellarmine, Descartes. In what sense were
they peers, in what sense not? More to the point, how would it have been viewed
at the time, how sundry and variously, by who? Now let's imagine in our darkest
imaginings that the "Continuous Young Creation" (CYC) theory of the universe can
win out in the next "Tribunal Of The Inquisition" (TOTI), and prevail over minds
for the remains of the Third Millennium. Will not-now people not then look back
on a wholly different "Topology Of Peers" (TOP) than what now transits sic, what
the Scientism of the future will chastise as our benighted age of seculahilarity?
These dim reflections make it clear that the notion of peerage is no explanation,
but concocted after the fact to rationalize whatever fashion or fascism preveils.
</pre>
===NEKS. Discussion Note 11===
<pre>
JP = Jim Piat
Re: KS-DIS 3. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003296.html
In: KS-DIS. http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
I see that some idiom from another language -- Algol or Forth I think --
has muffed my text for the English ear, so speaking of revision, like
speaking of the devil, I guess, here is the revised, extended edition:
But serially, folks, things take care of themselves as far as raising new doubts.
It's what we do to after that that makes all the difference in styles of inquiry.
Does our peerage into the skies open eyes, or refuse to peer through the 'scopes?
Does our revistation of old friends and familiars bring about a truly new vision,
or merely the sort of apologetic revisal that led Henry Ford to say that History
is post hoc revisionary casuistry of a specious quo, or something to that effect?
Think of a real example, say Galileo, Bellarmine, Descartes. In what sense were
they peers, in what sense not? More to the point, how would it have been viewed
at the time, how sundry and variously, by who? Now let's imagine in our darkest
imaginings that the "Continuous Young Creation" (CYC) theory of the universe can
win out in the next "Tribunal Of The Inquisition" (TOTI), and prevail over minds
for the remains of the Third Millennium. Will not-now people not then look back
on a wholly different "Topology Of Peers" (TOP) than what now transits sic, what
the Scientism of the future will chastise as our benighted age of seculahilarity?
These dim reflections make it clear that the notion of peerage is no explanation,
but concocted after the fact to rationalize whatever fashion or fascism preveils.
The spirit of inquiry comes from the heart.
Where it lives there's no need to force it.
Where it's dead there's no way to argue it
into being -- it demands an external shock
or an internal quake, a sense of anharmony
to kick-start it back to the realm of life.
But don't underestimate the persistence of
a static status quo to insulate its static
atmospherics from all hope of resuscitance,
by all the available routines of authority,
parochial isolation, not to say xenophobia.
</pre>
==OLOD. Quine On The Limits Of Decision==
===OLOD. Note 1===
| 2. Definition (concl.)
<pre>
| On the Limits of Decision
|
|
| The word "definition" has come to have a dangerously reassuring sound,
| Because these congresses occur at intervals of five years, they make
| owing no doubt to its frequent occurrence in logical and mathematical
| for retrospection. I find myself thinking back over a century of logic.
| A hundred years ago George Boole's algebra of classes was at hand. Like
| the role of definition in formal work.
| so many inventions, it had been needlessly clumsy when it first appeared;
|
| but meanwhile, in 1864, W.S. Jevons had taken the kinks out of it. It was
| In logical and mathematical systems either of two mutually antagonistic
| only in that same year, 1864, that DeMorgan published his crude algebra of
| types of economy may be striven for, and each has its peculiar practical
| relations. Then, around a century ago, C.S. Peirce published three papers
| utility. On the one hand we may seek economy of practical expression --
| refining and extending these two algebras -- Boole's of classes and DeMorgan's
| ease and brevity in the statement of multifarious relations. This sort
| of relations. These papers of Peirce's appeared in 1867 and 1870. Even our
| of economy calls usually for distinctive concise notations for a wealth
| conception of truth-function logic in terms of truth tables, which is so clear
| of concepts. Second, however, and oppositely, we may seek economy in
| and obvious as to seem inevitable today, was not yet explicit in the writings
| grammar and vocabulary; we may try to find a minimum of basic concepts
| of that time. As for the logic of quantification, it remained unknown until
| such that, once a distinctive notation has been appropriated to each of
| 1879, when Frege published his 'Begriffsschrift'; and it was around three
| them, it becomes possible to express any desired further concept by mere
| years later still that Peirce began to become aware of this idea, through
| independent efforts. And even down to litle more than a half century ago
| economy is impractical in one way, since a poverty in basic idioms tends
| we were weak on decision procedures. It was only in 1915 that Löwenheim
| to a necessary lengthening of discourse. But it is practical in another
| published a decision procedure for the Boolean algebra of classes, or,
| way: it greatly simplifies theoretical discourse 'about' the language,
| what is equivalent, monadic quantification theory. It was a clumsy
| through minimizing the terms and the forms of construction wherein the
| procedure, and obscure in the presentation -- the way, again, with
| new inventions. And it was less than a third of a century ago that
| we were at last forced, by results of Gödel, Turing, and Church, to
| despair of a decision procedure for the rest of quantification theory.
|
|
| Both sorts of economy, though prima facie incompatible, are valuable in
| Quine, "Limits of Decision", pp. 156-157.
|
|
| But these correlations are not arbitrary. They are supposed
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| save brevity and convenience, of the redundant language. Hence
| MA, 1981. A shorter version of this paper appeared in the
|'Akten des XIV. internationalen Kongresses für Philosophie',
| to be related in one or another of the three ways lately noted.
| vol. 3, 1969.
</pre>
| into the narrower notation, preseving a direct synonymy* as
| of antecedent usage; or the definiens may, in the spirit
===OLOD. Note 2===
| of explication, improve upon the antecedent usage of the
<pre>
| On the Limits of Decision (cont.)
|
|
| In formal and informal work alike, thus, we find
| It is hard now to imagine not seeing truth-function logic
| that definition -- except in the extreme case of the
| as a trivial matter of truth tables, and it is becoming hard
| explicitly conventional introduction of new notations --
| even to imagine the decidability of monadic quantification theory
| hinges on prior relations of synonymy. Recognizing then
| as other than obvious. For monadic quantification theory in a modern
| that the notion of definition does not hold the key to
| perspective is essentially just an elaboration of truth-function logic.
| synonymy and analyticity, let us look further into
| I want now to spend a few minutes developing this connection.
|
|
|*According to an important variant sense of "definition", the relation
| What makes truth-function logic decidable by truth tables
| preserved may be the weaker relation of mere agreement in reference;
| is that the truth value of a truth function can be computed
| see below, p. 132. But definition in this sense is better ignored in
| from the truth values of the arguments. But is a formula of
| the present connection, being irrelevant to the question of synonymy.
| quantification theory not a truth-function of quantifications?
| Its truth vaue can be computed from whatever truth values may be
| assigned to its component quantifications. Why does this not make
| quantification theory decidable by truth tables? Why not test a
| formula of quantification theory for validity by assigning all
| combinations of truth values to its component quantifications
| and seeing whether the whole comes out true every time?
|
| Quine, "Limits of Decision", p. 157.
|
|
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| W.V. Quine,
| MA, 1981. A shorter version of this paper appeared in the
|'Akten des XIV. internationalen Kongresses für Philosophie',
| vol. 3, 1969.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===OLOD. Note 3===
<pre>
| On the Limits of Decision (cont.)
| 3. Interchangeability
|
|
| A natural suggestion, deserving close examination, is that the synonymy
| The answer obviously is that this criterion is too
| of two linguistic forms consists simply in their interchangeability in
| severe, because the component quantifications are
| all contexts without change of truth value -- interchangeability, in
| not always independent of one another. A formula
| Leibniz's phrase 'salva veritate'. Note that synonyms so conceived
| of quantification theory might be valid in spite
| need not even be free from vagueness, as long as the vaguenesses
| of failing this truth-table test. It might fail
| match.
| the test by turning out false for some assignment
| of truth values to its component quantifications,
| but that assignment might be undeserving of notice
| because incompatible with certain interdependences
| of the component quantifications.
|
|
| But it is not quite true that the synonyms "bachelor" and "unmarried man"
| If, on the other hand, we can put a formula of quantification
| are everywhere interchangeable 'salva veritate'. Truths which become false
| theory into the form of a truth function of quantifications
| under substitution of "unmarried man" for "bachelor" are easily constructed
| which are independent of one another, then the truth table
| with the help of "bachelor of arts" or "bachelor's buttons"; also with the
| will indeed serve as a validity test. And this is just
| what we can do for monadic formulas of quantification
| theory. Herbrand showed this in 1930.
|
|
| "Bachelor" has less than ten letters.
| Quine, "Limits of Decision", p. 157.
|
|
| Such counterinstances can, however, be set aside by treating
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| quotation '"bachelor"' each as a single indivisible word and then
| MA, 1981. A shorter version of this paper appeared in the
| stipulating that the interchangeability 'salva veritate' which
|'Akten des XIV. internationalen Kongresses für Philosophie',
| is to be the touchstone of synonymy is not supposed to apply
| vol. 3, 1969.
</pre>
===OLOD. Note 4===
| reduced the problem of synonymy to a problem of wordhood.
<pre>
| On the Limits of Decision (cont.)
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 27-28.
| ...
|
| Quine, "Limits of Decision", pp. 157-158.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| W.V. Quine, "On the Limits of Decision", pp. 156-163 in
|'Theories and Things, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
| MA, 1981. A shorter version of this paper appeared in the
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
|'Akten des XIV. internationalen Kongresses für Philosophie',
| vol. 3, 1969.
</pre>
==POLA. Philosophy Of Logical Atomism==
I am going to collect here a number of excerpts from the papers that Bertrand Russell wrote in the years 1910–1920, my interest being focused on the logical characters of belief and knowledge. I will take the liberty of breaking up some of Russell's longer paragraphs in whatever fashion serves to facilitate their study.
===POLA. Note 1===
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
{| align="center" width="90%"
|
|
<p>The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (1918)</p>
<p>The following [is the text] of a course of eight lectures delivered in [Gordon Square] London, in the first months of 1918, [which] are very largely concerned with explaining certain ideas which I learnt from my friend and former pupil Ludwig Wittgenstein. I have had no opportunity of knowing his views since August 1914, and I do not even know whether he is alive or dead. He has therefore no responsibility for what is said in these lectures beyond that of having originally supplied many of the theories contained in them. (Russell, POLA, p. 35).</p>
|}
<p>Bertrand Russell, “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”, pp. 35–155 in ''The Philosophy of Logical Atomism'', edited with an introduction by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.</p>
===POLA. Note 2===
| synonymy. Just what this is cannot be said without successfully finishing the
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions
| terms as follows (keeping to the familiar example): to say that
|
|
| (3) All and only bachelors are unmarried men
| This course of lectures which I am now beginning I have called
| the Philosophy of Logical Atomism. Perhaps I had better begin
| by saying a word or two as to what I understand by that title.
| The kind of philosophy that I wish to advocate, which I call
| Logical Atomism, is one which has forced itself upon me in the
| course of thinking about the philosophy of mathematics, although
| I should find it hard to say exactly how far there is a definite
| logical connection between the two. The things I am going to say
| in these lectures are mainly my own personal opinions and I do not
| claim that they are more than that.
|
|
| is analytic.*
| As I have attempted to prove in 'The Principles of Mathematics', when
| we analyse mathematics we bring it all back to logic. It all comes back
| to logic in the strictest and most formal sense. In the present lectures,
| I shall try to set forth in a sort of outline, rather briefly and rather
| unsatisfactorily, a kind of logical doctrine which seems to me to result
| from the philosophy of mathematics -- not exactly logically, but as what
| emerges as one reflects: a certain kind of logical doctrine, and on the
| basis of this a certain kind of metaphysic.
|
|
|*This is cognitive synonymy in a primary, broad sense. Carnap ([3],
| The logic which I shall advocate is atomistic, as opposed to
| pp. 56ff) and Lewis ([2], pp. 83ff) have suggested how, once this
| the monistic logic of the people who more or less follow Hegel.
| notion is at hand, a narrower sense of cognitive synonymy which
| When I say that my logic is atomistic, I mean that I share the
| is preferable for some purposes can in turn be derived. But
| common-sense belief that there are many separate things; I do
| not regard the apparent multiplicity of the world as consisting
| from the present purposes and must not be confused with
| merely in phases and unreal divisions of a single indivisible
| the broad sort of cognitive synonymy here concerned.
| Reality. It results from that, that a considerable part of
|
| what one would have to do to justify the sort of philosophy
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 28-29.
| I wish to advocate would consist in justifying the process
| of analysis.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| One is often told that the process of analysis is falsification, that
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| when you analyse any given concrete whole you falsify it and that the
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| results of analysis are not true. I do not think that is a right view.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
| I do not mean to say, of course, and nobody would maintain, that when you
| have analysed you keep everything that you had before you analysed. If you
| did, you would never attain anything in analysing. I do not propose to meet
| the views that I disagree with by controversy, by arguing against those views,
| but rather by positively setting forth what I believe to be the truth about the
| matter, and endeavouring all the way through to make the views that I advocate
| result inevitably from absolutely undeniable data.
|
| When I talk of "undeniable data" that is not to be regarded as synonymous
| with "true data", because "undeniable" is a psychological term and "true"
| is not. When I say that something is "undeniable", I mean that it is not
| the sort of thing that anybody is going to deny; it does not follow from
| that that it is true, though it does follow that we shall all think it true --
| and that is as near to truth as we seem able to get.
|
| When you are considering any sort of theory of knowledge, you are more or less
| tied to a certain unavoidable subjectivity, because you are not concerned simply
| with the question what is true of the world, but "What can I know of the world?"
| You always have to start any kind of argument from something which appears to
| you to be true; if it appears to you to be true, there is no more to be done.
| You cannot go outside yourself and consider abstractly whether the things that
| appear to you to be true are true; you may do this in a particular case, where
| one of your beliefs is changed in consequence of others among your beliefs.
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 35-37.
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 3===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
|
|
| What we need is an account of cognitive synonymy
| The reason that I call my doctrine 'logical' atomism is because
| not presupposing analyticity -- if we are to explain
| the atoms that I wish to arrive at as the sort of last residue
| in analysis are logical atoms and not physical atoms. Some of
| as undertaken in Section 1. And indeed such an independent
| them will be what I call "particulars" -- such things as little
| account of cognitive synonymy is at present up for consideration,
| patches of colour or sounds, momentary things -- and some of them
| namely, interchangeability 'salva veritate' everywhere except within
| will be predicates or relations and so on. The point is that the
| atom I wish to arrive at is the atom of logical analysis, not the
| such interchangeability is a sufficient condition for cognitive synonymy.
| atom of physical analysis.
| sort. The statement:
|
|
| (4) Necessarily all and only bachelors are bachelors
| Russell, POLA, p. 37.
|
|
| is evidently true, even supposing "necessarily" so narrowly construed as
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| to be truly applicable only to analytic statements. Then, if "bachelor"
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| and "unmarried man" are interchangeable 'salva veritate', the result:
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 4===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
|
|
| (5) Necessarily all and only bachelors are unmarried men
| It is a rather curious fact in philosophy that the data which are
| undeniable to start with are always rather vague and ambiguous.
| You can, for instance, say: "There are a number of people in
| this room at this moment". That is obviously in some sense
| undeniable. But when you come to try and define what this
| room is, and what it is for a person to be in a room, and
| how you are going to distinguish one person from another,
| and so forth, you find that what you have said is most
| fearfully vague and that you really do not know what
| you meant. That is a rather singular fact, that
| everything you are really sure of, right off is
| something that you do not know the meaning of,
| and the moment you get a precise statement
| you will not be sure whether it is true
| or false, at least right off.
|
|
| of putting "unmarried man" for an occurrence of "bachelor" in (4) must,
| The process of sound philosophizing, to my mind, consists mainly
| like (4), be true. But to say that (5) is true is to say that (3) is
| in passing from those obvious, vague, ambiguous things, that we
| analytic, and hence that "bachelor" and "unmarried man" are cognitively
| feel quite sure of, to something precise, clear, definite, which
| synonymous.
| by reflection and analysis we find is involved in the vague thing
| that we start from, and is, so to speak, the real truth of which
| that vague thing is a sort of shadow.
|
|
| Let us see what there is about the above argument that gives it its air
| I should like, if time were longer and if I knew more than I do,
| of hocus-pocus. The condition of interchangeability 'salva veritate'
| to spend a whole lecture on the conception of vagueness. I think
| varies in its force with variations in the richness of the language
| vagueness is very much more important in the theory of knowledge
| at hand. The above argument supposes we are working with a language
| than you would judge it to be from the writings of most people.
| rich enough to contain the adverb "necessarily", this adverb being so
| Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you
| construed as to yield truth when and only when applied to an analytic
| have tried to make it precise, and everything precise is
| statement. But can we condone a language which contains such an adverb?
| so remote from everything that we normally think, that
| Does the adverb really make sense? To suppose that it does is to suppose
| you cannot for a moment suppose that is what we really
| that we have already made satisfactory sense of "analytic". Then what are
| mean when we say what we think.
|
|
| Our argument is not flatly circular, but something like it.
| Russell, POLA, pp. 37-38.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 29-30.
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
|
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 5===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
|
| The first truism to which I wish to draw your attention -- and I hope
| you will agree with me that these things that I call truisms are so
| obvious that it is almost laughable to mention them -- is that the
| world contains 'facts', which are what they are whatever we may
| choose to think about them, and that there are also 'beliefs',
| which have reference to facts, and by reference to facts are
| either true or false.
|
| I will try first of all to give you a preliminary explanation of what
| I mean by a "fact". When I speak of a fact -- I do not propose to
| attempt an exact definition, but an explanation, so that you will
| know what I am talking about -- I mean the kind of thing that
| makes a proposition true or false.
|
| If I say "It is raining", what I say is true in a certain condition of
| weather and is false in other conditions of weather. The condition of
| weather that makes my statement true (or false as the case may be), is
| what I should call a "fact".
|
| If I say, "Socrates is dead", my statement will be true owing to a
| certain physiological occurrence which happened in Athens long ago.
|
| If I say, "Gravitation varies inversely as the square of the distance",
| my statement is rendered true by astronomical fact.
|
| If I say, "Two and two are four", it is arithmetical fact that makes
| my statement true.
|
| On the other hand, if I say, "Socrates is alive",
| or "Gravitation varies directly as the distance",
| or "Two and two are five", the very same facts
| which made my previous statements true show
| that these new statements are false.
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 40-41.
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 6===
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
|
|
| Interchangeability 'salva veritate' is meaningless until relativized to
| I want you to realize that when I speak of a fact I do not mean a
| a language whose extent is specified in relevant respects. Suppose now
| particular existing thing, such as Socrates or the rain or the sun.
| we consider a language containing just the following materials. There
| Socrates himself does not render any statement true of false. You
| is an indefinitely large stock of one-place predicates, (for example,
| might be inclined to suppose that all by himself he would give truth
| "F" where "Fx" means that x is a man) and many-place predicates (for
| to the statement "Socrates existed", but as a matter of fact that is a
| example, "G" where "Gxy" means that x loves y), mostly having to
| mistake. It is due to a confusion which I shall try to explain in the
| do with extralogical subject matter. The rest of the language
| sixth lecture of this course, when I come to deal with the notion of
| is logical. The atomic sentences consist each of a predicate
| existence. Socrates himself, or any particular thing just by itself,
| followed by one or more variables "x", "y", etc.; and the
| does not make any proposition true or false. "Socrates is dead" and
| complex sentences are built up of the atomic ones by truth
| "Socrates is alive" are both of them statements about Socrates. One is
| functions ("not", "and", "or", etc.) and quantification.
| true and the other false. What I call a fact is the sort of thing that
| is expressed by a whole sentence, not by a single name like "Socrates".
| descriptions and indeed singular terms generally,
| When a single word does come to express a fact, like "fire" or "wolf",
| it is always due to an unexpressed context, and the full expression of
| Even abstract singular terms naming classes,
| a fact will always involve a sentence. We express a fact, for example,
| classes of classes, etc., are contextually
| when we say that a certain thing has a certain property, or that it
| has a certain relation to another thing; but the thing which has
| predicates includes the two-place
| the property or the relation is not what I call a "fact".
| Such a language can be adequate
| "necessarily". Now a language of this
| (that is, are true of the same objects)
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 30.
| Russell, POLA, p. 41.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 7===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
|
|
| In an extensional language, therefore, interchangeability
| It is important to observe that facts belong to the objective world.
| 'salva veritate' is no assurance of cognitive synonymy of
| They are not created by our thought or beliefs except in special cases.
| the desired type. That "bachelor" and "unmarried man" are
| That is one of the sort of things which I should set up as an obvious truism,
| interchangeable 'salva veritate' in an extensional language
| but, of course, one is aware, the moment one has read any philosophy at all,
| assures us of no more than that (3) is true. There is no
| how very much there is to be said before such a statement as that can become
| assurance here that the extensional agreement of "bachelor"
| the kind of position that you want. The first thing I want to emphasize is
| and "unmarried man" rests on meaning rather than merely on
| that the outer world -- the world, so to speak, which knowledge is aiming
| accidental matters of fact, as does the extensional agreement
| at knowing -- is not completely described by a lot of "particulars", but
| of "creature with a heart" and "creature with kidneys".
| that you must also take account of these things that I call facts, which
| are the sort of things that you express by a sentence, and that these,
| just as much as particular chairs and tables, are part of the real world.
|
|
| For most purposes extensional agreement is the nearest approximation
| Except in psychology, most of our statements are not intended merely to
| to synonymy we need care about. But the fact remains that extensional
| express our condition of mind, though that is often all that they succeed
| agreement falls far short of cognitive synonymy of the type required for
| in doing. They are intended to express facts, which (except when they are
| explaining analyticity in the manner of Section 1. The type of cognitive
| psychological facts) will be about the outer world. There are such facts
| synonymy required there is such as to equate the synonymy of "bachelor"
| involved, equally when we speak truly and when we speak falsely. When we
| speak falsely it is an objective fact that makes what we say false, and
| truth of (3).
| it is an objective fact which makes what we say true when we speak truly.
|
|
| So we must recognize that interchangeability 'salva veritate',
| Russell, POLA, pp. 41-42.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 31.
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 8===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
|
| There are a great many different kinds of facts, and we shall be
| 3. Interchangeability (concl.)
| concerned in later lectures with a certain amount of classification
| of facts. I will just point out a few kinds of facts to begin with,
| so that you may not imagine that facts are all very much alike.
|
|
| The effort to explain cognitive synonymy first, for the sake
| There are 'particular facts', such as "This is white"; then there
| are 'general facts', such as "All men are mortal". Of course, the
| distinction between particular and general facts is one of the most
| analyticity somehow without appeal to cognitive synonymy.
| important.
| by putting "=" between them is analytic. Statements may be said
| 'salva' (no longer 'veritate' but) 'analyticitate'. Certain
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 31-32.
| There again it would be a very great mistake to suppose that
| you could describe the world completely by means of particular
| facts alone. Suppose that you had succeeded in chronicling every
| single particular fact throughout the universe, and that there did
| not exist a single particular fact of any sort anywhere that you had
| not chronicled, you still would not have got a complete description of
| the universe unless you also added: "These that I have chronicled are
| all the particular facts there are". So you cannot hope to describe the
| world completely without having general facts as well as particular facts.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Another distinction, which is perhaps a little more difficult to make, is
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| between positive facts and negative facts, such as "Socrates was alive" --
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| a positive fact -- and "Socrates is not alive" -- you might say a negative
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
| fact. But the distinction is difficult to make precise.
|
| Then there are facts concerning particular things or particular qualities
| or relations, and, apart from them, the completely general facts of the sort
| that you have in logic, where there is no mention of any constituent whatever
| of the actual world, no mention of any particular thing or particular quality
| or particular relation, indeed strictly you may say no mention of anything.
|
| 4. Semantical Rules
| That is one of the characteristics
| of logical propositions, that they
| mention nothing.
|
|
| Analyticity at first seemed most naturally definable by appeal
| Such a proposition is: "If one class is
| to a realm of meanings. On refinement, the appeal to meanings
| part of another, a term which is a member
| of the one is also a member of the other".
| best understood only by dint of a prior appeal to analyticity itself.
|
|
| I do not know whether the statement "Everything green is extended"
| All those words that come in the statement of a pure logical proposition
| is analytic. Now does my indecision over this example really betray
| are words really belonging to syntax. They are words merely expressing
| an incomplete understanding, an incomplete grasp of the "meanings",
| form or connection, not mentioning any particular constituent of the
| of "green" and "extended"? I think not. The trouble is not with
| proposition in which they occur. This is, of course, a thing that
| "green" or "extended", but with "analytic".
| wants to be proved; I am not laying it down as self-evident.
|
|
| It is often hinted that the difficulty in separating analytic
| Then there are facts about the properties of single things; and facts
| statements from synthetic ones in ordinary language is due to
| about the relations between two things, three things, and so on; and
| the vagueness of ordinary language and that the distinction is
| any number of different classifications of some of the facts in the
| world, which are important for different purposes.
| show, is a confusion.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 32.
| Russell, POLA, pp. 42-43.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 9===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| 4. Semantical Rules (cont.)
|
|
| The notion of analyticity about which we are worrying is a purported
| It is obvious that there is not a dualism of true and false facts;
| relation between statements and languages: a statement S is said to
| there are only just facts. It would be a mistake, of course, to
| say that all facts are true. That would be a mistake because
| this relation generally, that is, for variable "S" and "L". The
| true and false are correlatives, and you would only say of
| gravity of this problem is not perceptibly less for artificial
| a thing that it was true if it was the sort of thing that
| 'might' be false. A fact cannot be either true or false.
| retains its stubbornness even if we limit the range of the
| variable "L" to artificial languages. Let me now try to
|
|
| For artificial languages and semantical rules we look naturally
| That brings us on to the question of statements or propositions or
| judgments, all those things that do have the quality of truth and
| falsehood. For the purposes of logic, though not, I think, for the
| purposes of theory of knowledge, it is natural to concentrate upon
| the proposition as the thing which is going to be our typical vehicle
| of all the analytic statements of L_0. The rules tell us that such and such
| on the duality of truth and falsehood.
| statements, and only those, are the analytic statements of L_0. Now here
| rules attribute analyticity to, but we do not understand what
| the rules attribute to those expressions. In short, before
| analytic for language L_0 if and only if ...", we must
|
|
| Alternatively we may, indeed, view the so-called rule as a conventional
| A proposition, one may say, is a sentence in the indicative,
| definition of a new simple symbol "analytic-for-L_0", which might better
| a sentence asserting something, not questioning or commanding
| be written untendentiously as "K" so as not to seem to throw light on the
| or wishing. It may also be a sentence of that sort preceded
| interesting word "analytic". Obviously any number of classes K, M, N, etc.
| by the word "that". For example, "That Socrates is alive",
| of statements of L_0 can be specified for various purposes or for no purpose;
| "That two and two are four", "That two and two are five",
| anything of that sort will be a proposition.
| "analytic" statements of L_0?
|
|
| By saying what statements are analytic for L_0 we explain
| Russell, POLA, pp. 43-44.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 33-34.
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
|
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 10===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
|
| A proposition is just a symbol. It is a complex symbol in the
| 4. Semantical Rules (cont.)
| sense that it has parts which are also symbols: a symbol may
| be defined as complex when it has parts that are symbols.
|
|
| Actually we do know enough about the intended significance of
| In a sentence containing several words, the several words are each symbols,
| and the sentence comprising them is therefore a complex symbol in that sense.
| analytic but simply that such and such statements are
|
|
| Still there is really no progress. Instead of appealing to an unexplained
| There is a good deal of importance to philosophy in the theory of symbolism,
| a good deal more than one time I thought. I think the importance is almost
| rule". Not every true statement which says that the statements of some
| entirely negative, i.e., the importance lies in the fact that unless you
| class are true can count as a semantical rule -- otherwise 'all' truths
| are fairly self-conscious about symbols, unless you are fairly aware of
| the relation of the symbol to what it symbolizes, you will find yourself
| rules. Semantical rules are distinguishable, apparently, only by the
| attributing to the thing properties which only belong to the symbol.
| fact of appearing on a page under the heading "Semantical Rules";
| and this heading is itself then meaningless.
|
|
| We can say indeed that a statement is 'analytic-for-L_0' if and
| That, of course, is especially likely in very abstract studies such as
| only if it is true according to such and such specifically appended
| philosophical logic, because the subject-matter that you are supposed
| "semantical rules", but then we find ourselves back at essentially the
| to be thinking of is so exceedingly difficult and elusive that any
| same case which was originally discussed: "S is analytic-for-L_0" if and
| person who has ever tried to think about it knows you do not think
| only if ...". Once we seek to explain "S is analytic for L" generally for
| about it except perhaps once in six months for half a minute.
| variable "L" (even allowing limitation of "L" to artificial languages),
| The rest of the time you think about the symbols, because
| the explanation "true according to the semantical rules of L" is
| they are tangible, but the thing you are supposed to be
| unavailing; for the relative term "semantical rule of" is as
| thinking about is fearfully difficult and one does not
| much in need of clarification, at least, as "analytic for".
| often manage to think about it.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 34.
| The really good philosopher is the one who does
| once in six months think about it for a minute.
| Bad philosophers never do. That is why the
| theory of symbolism has a certain importance,
| because otherwise you are so certain to
| mistake the properties of the symbolism
| for the properties of the thing.
|
| It has other interesting sides to it too.
| There are different kinds of symbols,
| different kinds of relation between
| symbol and what is symbolized, and
| very important fallacies arise
| from not realizing this.
|
| The sort of contradictions about which
| I shall be speaking in connection with
| types in a later lecture all arise from
| mistakes in symbolism, from putting one
| sort of symbol in the place where another
| sort of symbol ought to be.
|
| Some of the notions that have been thought absolutely fundamental in philosophy
| have arisen, I believe, entirely through mistakes as to symbolism -- e.g. the
| notion of existence, or, if you like, reality. Those two words stand for a
| great deal that has been discussed in philosophy. There has been the theory
| about every proposition being really a description of reality as a whole and
| so on, and altogther these notions of reality and existence have played a
| very prominent part in philosophy. Now my own belief is that as they have
| occurred in philosophy, they have been entirely the outcome of a muddle
| about symbolism, and that when you have cleared up that muddle, you find
| that practically everything that has been said about existence is sheer
| and simple mistake, and that is all you can say about it. I shall go
| into that in a later lecture, but it is an example of the way in which
| symbolism is important.
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 44-45.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 11===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| 4. Semantical Rules (cont.)
|
|
| It may be instructive to compare the notion of semantical rule with that
| Perhaps I ought to say a word or two about what I am
| understanding by symbolism, because I think some people
| think you only mean mathematical symbols when you talk
| about symbolism. I am using it in a sense to include
| rule is. But given simply a notation, mathematical or otherwise,
| all language of every sort and kind, so that every
| and indeed as thoroughly understood a notation as you please in
| word is a symbol, and every sentence, and so forth.
| attention. Now the notion of semantical rule is as sensible and meaningful as
| language L. But from this point of view no one signalization of a subclass
| of the truths of L is intrinsically more a semantical rule than another;
|
|
|*The foregoing paragraph was not part of the present essay as
| When I speak of a symbol I simply mean something that "means" something else,
| originally published. It was prompted by Martin [R.M. Martin,
| and as to what I mean by "meaning" I am not prepared to tell you. I will in
| "On 'Analytic'", 'Philosophical Studies', vol. 3 (1952), 42-47],
| the course of time enumerate a strictly infinite number of different things
| as was the end of Essay 7.
| that "meaning" may mean but I shall not consider that I have exhausted the
| discussion by doing that. I think that the notion of meaning is always
| more or less psychological, and that it is not possible to get a pure
| logical theory of meaning, nor therefore of symbolism. I think that
| it is of the very essence of the explanation of what you mean by a
| symbol to take account of such things as knowing, of cognitive
| relations, and probably also of association. At any rate
| I am pretty clear that the theory of symbolism and the
| use of symbolism is not a thing that can be explained
| in pure logic without taking account of the various
| cognitive relations that you may have to things.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 35.
| Russell, POLA, p. 45.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 12===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (cont.)
| 4. Semantical Rules (concl.)
|
|
| It might conceivably be protested that an artificial language L
| As to what one means by "meaning", I will give a few illustrations.
| For instance, the word "Socrates", you will say, means a certain man;
| a set of explicit semantical rules -- the whole constituting, let
| the word "mortal" means a certain quality; and the sentence "Socrates
| us say, an ordered pair; and that the semantical rules of L then
| is mortal" means a certain fact. But these three sorts of meaning are
| are specifiable simply as the second component of the pair L. But,
| entirely distinct, and you will get into the most hopeless contradictions
| by the same token and more simply, we might construe an artificial
| if you think the word "meaning" has the same meaning in each of these three
| language L outright as an ordered pair whose second component is the
| cases. It is very important not to suppose that there is just one thing which
| class of its analytic statements; and then the analytic statements of L
| is meant by "meaning", and that therefore there is just one sort of relation of
| become specifiable simply as the statements in the second component of L.
| the symbol to what is symbolized. A name would be a proper symbol to use for
| Or better still, we might just stop tugging at our bootstraps altogether.
| a person; a sentence (or a proposition) is the proper symbol for a fact.
|
|
| Not all the explanations of analyticity known to Carnap
| A belief or a statement has duality of truth and falsehood, which the
| fact does not have. A belief or a statement always involves a proposition.
| considerations, but the extension to other forms is not hard
| You say that a man believes that so and so is the case. A man believes that
| to see. Just one additional factor should be mentioned which
| Socrates is dead. What he believes is a proposition on the face of it, and
| sometimes enters: sometimes the semantical rules are in effect
| for formal purposes it is convenient to take the proposition as the essential
| thing having the duality of truth and falsehood.
| analytic statements of the artificial language are in effect
| analyticity from the side of the artificial language.
|
|
| From the point of view of the problem of analyticity the notion of an
| It is very important to realize such things, for instance,
| artificial language with semantical rules is a 'feu follet par excellence'.
| as that 'propositions are not names for facts'. It is quite
| Semantical rules determining the analytic statements of an artificial language
| obvious as soon as it is pointed out to you, but as a matter
| are of interest only in so far as we already understand the notion of analyticity;
| of fact I never had realized it until it was pointed out to
| they are of no help in gaining this understanding.
| me by a former pupil of mine, Wittgenstein. It is perfectly
| evident as soon as you think of it, that a proposition is not
| a name for a fact, from the mere circumstance that there are
| 'two' propositions corresponding to each fact. Suppose it
| is a fact that Socrates is dead. You have two propositions:
| "Socrates is dead" and "Socrates is not dead". And those two
| propositions corresponding to the same fact; there is one fact
| in the world which makes one true and one false. That is not
| accidental, and illustrates how the relation of proposition
| to fact is a totally different one from the relation of name
| to the thing named. For each fact there are two propositions,
| one true and one false, and there is nothing in the nature of
| the symbol to show us which is the true one and which is the
| false one. If there were, you could ascertain the truth
| about the world by examining propositions without looking
| around you.
|
|
| Appeal to hypothetical languages of an artificially simple
| Russell, POLA, pp. 46-47.
|
|
| It is obvious that truth in general depends on both language and extralinguistic
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 13===
<pre>
| 1. Facts and Propositions (concl.)
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism
|
|
| In the course of these somber reflections we have taken a dim view first
| There are two different relations, as you see, that a proposition
| of the notion of meaning, then of the notion of cognitive synonymy, and
| may have to a fact: the one the relation that you may call being
| finally of the notion of analyticity. But what, it may be asked, of
| true to the fact, and the other being false to the fact. Both are
| the verification theory of meaning? This phrase has established
| equally essentially logical relations which may subsist between the
| itself so firmly as a catchword of empiricism that we should be
| two, whereas in the case of a name, there is only one relation that
| very unscientific indeed not to look beneath it for a possible
| it can have to what it names. A name can just name a particular,
| key to the problem of meaning and the associated problems.
| or, if it does not, it is not a name at all, it is a noise. It
| cannot be a name without having just that one particular relation
| of naming a certain thing, whereas a proposition does not cease
| to be a proposition if it is false. It has two ways, of being
| true and being false, which together correspond to the property
| of being a name. Just as a word may be a name or be not a name
| but just a meaningless noise, so a phrase which is apparently a
| proposition may be either true or false, or may be meaningless,
| but the true and false belong together as against the meaningless.
| That shows, of course, that the formal logical characterictics of
| propositions are quite different from those of names, and that the
| relations they have to facts are quite different, and therefore
| propositions are not names for facts. You must not run away with
| the idea that you can name facts in any other way; you cannot.
| You cannot name them at all. You cannot properly name a fact.
| The only thing you can do is to assert it, or deny it, or
| desire it, or will it, or wish it, or question it, but all
| those are things involving the whole proposition. You can
| never put the sort of thing that makes a proposition to be
| true or false in the position of a logical subject. You can
| only have it there as something to be asserted or denied or
| something of that sort, but not something to be named.
|
| Russell, POLA, p. 47.
|
|
| The verification theory of meaning, which has been conspicuous in the
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| literature from Peirce onward, is that the meaning of a statement is
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| the method of empirically confirming or infirming it. An analytic
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| statement is that limiting case which is confirmed no matter what.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 14===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc.
|
|
| As urged in Section 1, we can as well pass over the question of
| You will remember that after speaking about atomic propositions
| meanings as entities and move straight to sameness of meaning,
| I pointed out two more complicated forms of propositions which
| or synonymy. Then what the verification theory says is that
| arise immediately on proceeding further than that: the 'first',
| statements are synonymous if and only if they are alike in
| which I call molecular propositions, which I dealt with last time,
| point of method of empirical confirmation or infirmation.
| involving such words as "or", "and", "if", and the 'second' involving
| two or more verbs such as believing, wishing, willing, and so forth.
|
|
| This is an account of cognitive synonymy not of linguistic forms generally,
| In the case of molecular propositions it was not clear that we had to deal with
| but of statements.* However, from the concept of synonymy of statements
| any new form of fact, but only with a new form of proposition, i.e. if you have
| a disjunctive proposition such as "p or q" it does not seem very plausible to
| considerations somewhat similar to those at the end of Section 3.
| say that there is in the world a disjunctive fact corresponding to "p or q"
| Assuming the notion of "word", indeed, we could explain any
| but merely that there is a fact corresponding to p and a fact corresponding
| two forms as synonymous when the putting of one form for
| to q, and the disjunctive proposition derives its truth or falsehood from
| those two separate facts. Therefore in that case one was dealing only
| with a new form of proposition and not with new form of fact. Today
| Finally, given the concept of synonymy thus for linguistic
| we have to deal with a new form of fact.
| forms generally, we could define analyticity in terms of
| matter, we could define analyticity more simply in
| For a statement may be described as analytic simply
|
|
|*The doctrine can indeed be formulated with terms rather than statements as the
| Russell, POLA, pp. 79-80.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 37-38.
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
|
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 15===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc. (cont.)
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
|
| So, if the verification theory can be accepted as an adequate account
| I think that one might describe philosophical logic, the philosophical portion
| of statement synonymy, the notion of analyticity is saved after all.
| of logic which is the portion that I am concerned with in these lectures since
| However, let us reflect. Statement synonymy is said to be likeness
| Christmas (1917), as an inventory, or if you like a more humble word, a "zoo"
| containing all the different forms that facts may have. I should prefer to
| say "forms of facts" rather than "forms of propositions".
| and the experiences which contribute to or detract from its
| confirmation?
|
|
| The most naive view of the relation is that it is one of direct report.
| To apply that to the case of molecular propositions which I dealt with
| This is 'radical reductionism'. Every meaningful statement is held to be
| last time, if one were pursuing this analysis of the forms of facts,
| translatable into a statement (true or false) about immediate experience.
| it would be 'belief in' a molecular proposition that one would deal
| Radical reductionism, in one form or another, well antedates the verification
| with rather than the molecular proposition itself. In accordance
| with the sort of realistic bias that should put into all study
| of metaphysics, I should always wish to be engaged in the
| of ideas thus originating; and taking a hint from Tooke we might rephrase
| investigation of some actual fact or set of facts, and it
| seems to me that that is so in logic just as much as it
| at all, must be either a name of a sense datum or a compound of such names or
| is in zoology. In logic you are concerned with the
| forms of facts, with getting hold of the different
| as between sense data as sensory events and sense data as sensory qualities;
| sorts of facts, different 'logical' sorts of facts,
| and it remains vague as to the admissible ways of compounding. Moreover, the
| that there are in the world.
| doctrine is unnecessarily and intolerably restrictive in the term-by-term
| critique which it imposes. More reasonably, and without yet exceeding
| statements as our significant units -- thus demanding that our statements
|
|
| This emendation would unquestionably have been welcome to Locke and Hume
| Russell, POLA, p. 80.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 38-39.
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
|
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 16===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc. (cont.)
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
|
| Radical reductionism, conceived now with statements as units,
| Now I want to point out today that the facts that occur when one
| set itself the task of specifying a sense-datum language and
| believes or wishes or wills have a different logical form from
| showing how to translate the rest of significant discourse,
| the atomic facts containing a single verb which I dealt with
| statement by statement, into it. Carnap embarked on this
| in my second lecture. (There are, of course, a good many
| project in the 'Aufbau'.
| forms that facts that may have, a strictly infinite number,
| and I do not wish you to suppose that I pretend to deal
| with all of them.)
|
| Suppose you take any actual occurrence of a belief. I want you to
| understand that I am not talking about beliefs in the sort of way
| in which judgment is spoken of in theory of knowledge, in which
| you would say there is 'the' judgment that two and two are four.
| I am talking of the actual occurrence of a belief in a particular
| person's mind at a particular moment, and discussing what sort of
| fact that is.
|
| If I say "What day of the week is this?" and you say "Tuesday",
| there occurs in your mind at that moment the belief that this is
| Tuesday. The thing I want to deal with today is the question:
|
|
| The language which Carnap adopted as his starting point was not
| What is the form of the fact which occurs when a person has a belief?
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 39.
| Russell, POLA, pp. 80-81.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 17===
<pre>
| 4. Propositions and Facts with More than One Verb: Beliefs, Etc. (cont.)
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
|
| If Carnap's starting point is satisfactory,
| Of course you see that the sort of obvious first notion that one would
| still his constructions were, as he himself
| naturally arrive at would be that a belief is a relation to the proposition.
| stressed, only a fragment of the full program.
| "I believe the proposition p." "I believe that today is Tuesday." "I believe
| The construction of even the simplest statements
| that two and two are four." Something like that. It seems on the face of it
| about the physical world was left in a sketchy state.
| as if you had there a relation of the believing subject to a proposition.
| Carnap's suggestions on this subject were, despite their
|
| sketchiness, very suggestive. He explained spatio-temporal
| That view won't do for various reasons which I shall go into. But you
| point-instants as quadruples of real numbers and envisaged
| have, therefore, got to have a theory of belief which is not exactly that.
| assignment of sense qualities to point-instants according
| Take any sort of proposition, say "I believe Socrates is mortal". Suppose
| to certain canons. Roughly summarized, the plan was that
| that that belief does actually occur. The statement that it occurs is a
| qualities should be assigned to point-instants in such a
| statement of fact. You have there two verbs. You may have more than two
| way as to achieve the laziest world compatible with our
| verbs, you may have any number greater than one. I may believe that Jones
| experience. The principle of least action was to be
| is of the opinion that Socrates is mortal. There you have more than two
| our guide in constructing a world from experience.
| verbs. You may have any number, but you cannot have less than two.
|
|
| Carnap did not seem to recognize, however, that his treatment
| You will perceive that it is not only the proposition that has the two verbs,
| of physical objects fell short of reduction not merely through
| but also the fact, which is expressed by the proposition, has two constituents
| corresponding to verbs. I shall call those constituents verbs for the sake
| of shortness, as it is very difficult to find any word to describe all those
| objects which one denotes by verbs. Of course, that is strictly using the
| word "verb" in two different senses, but I do not think it can lead to any
| experience the truth values were to be progressively revised
| confusion if you understand that it is being so used.
| (deliberately oversimplified, to be sure) of what science really
| does; but it provides no indication, not even the sketchiest, of
| how a statement of the form "Quality q is at x;y;z;t" could ever
| in its elimination.
|
|
| Carnap seems to have appreciated this point afterward;
| This fact (the belief) is one fact. It is not like what you had in molecular
| for in his later writings he abandoned all notion of
| propositions where you had (say) "p or q". It is just one single fact that
| the translatability of statements about the physical
| you have a belief. That is obvious from the fact that you can believe a
| world into statements about immediate experience.
| falsehood. It is obvious from the fact of false belief that you cannot
| Reductionism in its radical form has long since
| cut off one part; you cannot have:
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 39-40.
| I believe / Socrates is mortal.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| There are certain questions that arise about such facts,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| and the first that arises is, Are they undeniable facts
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| or can you reduce them in some way to relations of other
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
| facts? Is it really necessary to suppose that there
| are irreducible facts, of which that sort of thing
| is a verbal expression?
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
|
| But the dogma of reductionism has, in a subtler and more tenuous form,
| On that question until fairly lately I should certainly not have
| continued to influence the thought of empiricists. The notion lingers
| supposed that any doubt could arise. It had not really seemed to
| that to each statement, or each synthetic statement, there is associated
| me until fairly lately that that was a debatable point. I still
| believe that there are facts of that form, but I see that it is
| a substantial question that needs to be discussed.
| whose occurrence would detract from that likelihood. This notion is of
|
|
| The dogma of reductionism survives in the supposition that each statement,
| Russell, POLA, pp. 81-82.
|
|
|*This doctrine was well argued by Duhem [Pierre Duhem, 'La Theorie Physique:
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 18===
<pre>
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts?
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (concl.)
|
|
| The dogma of reductionism, even in its attenuated form, is intimately
| "Etc." covers understanding a proposition; it covers desiring, willing,
| connected with the other dogma -- that there is a cleavage between
| any other attitude of that sort that you may think of that involves
| the analytic and the synthetic. We have found ourselves led,
| a proposition. It seems natural to say one believes a proposition
| indeed, from the latter problem to the former through the
| and unnatural to say one desires a proposition, but as a matter
| verification theory of meaning. More directly, the one
| of fact that is only a prejudice. What you believe and what
| dogma clearly supports the other in this way: as long
| you desire are of exactly the same nature. You may desire
| as it is taken to be significant in general to speak
| to get some sugar tomorrow and of course you may possibly
| of the confirmation and infirmation of a statement,
| believe that you will. I am not sure that the logical
| form is the same in the case of will. I am inclined
| kind of statement which is vacuously confirmed,
| to think that the case of will is more analogous to
| 'ipso facto', come what may; and such
| that of perception, in going direct to facts, and
| a statement is analytic.
| excluding the possibility of falsehood. In any
| case desire and belief are of exactly the same
| form logically.
|
|
| The two dogmas are, indeed, at root identical. We lately reflected
| Russell, POLA, p. 82.
|
|
| The idea of defining a symbol in use was, as remarked, an advance
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| over the impossible term-by-term empiricism of Locke and Hume.
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| The statement, rather than the term, came with Bentham to be
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| recognized as the unit accountable to an empiricist critique.
</pre>
| But what I am now urging is that even in taking the statement
| as unit we have drawn our grid too finely. The unit of empirical
===POLA. Note 19===
| significance is the whole of science.
<pre>
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts? (cont.)
|
| Pragmatists and some of the American realists, the school whom one calls
| neutral monists, deny altogether that there is such a phenomenon as belief
| in the sense I am dealing with. They do not deny it in words, they do not
| use the same sort of language that I am using, and that makes it difficult
| to compare their views with the views I am speaking about. One has really
| to translate what they say into language more or less analogous to ours
| before one can make out where the points of contact or difference are.
|
| If you take the works of James in his 'Essays in Radical Empiricism'
| or Dewey in his 'Essays in Experimental Logic' you will find that they
| are denying altogether that there is such a phenomenon as belief in the
| sense I am talking of. They use the word "believe" but they mean something
| different. You come to the view called "behaviourism", according to which
| you mean, if you say a person believes a thing, that he behaves in a certain
| fashion; and that hangs together with James's pragmatism. James and Dewey
| would say: when I believe a proposition, that 'means' that I act in a certain
| fashion, that my behaviour has certain characteristics, and my belief is a true
| one if the behaviour leads to the desired result and is a false one if it does
| not. That, if it is true, makes their pragmatism a perfectly rational account
| of truth and falsehood, if you do accept their view that belief as an isolated
| phenomenon does not occur.
|
| That is therefore the first thing one has to consider.
| It would take me too far from logic to consider that
| subject as it deserves to be considered, because it
| is a subject belonging to psychology, and it is only
| relevant to logic in this one way that it raises a
| doubt whether there are any facts having the logical
| form that I am speaking of.
|
| In the question of this logical form that involves two or more verbs you
| have a curious interlacing of logic with empirical studies, and of course
| that may occur elsewhere, in this way, that an empirical study gives you
| an example of a thing having a certain logical form, and you cannot really
| be sure that there are things having a given logical form except by finding
| an example, and the finding of an example is itself empirical. Therefore in
| that way empirical facts are relevant to logic at certain points. I think
| theoretically one might know that there were those forms without knowing
| any instance of them, but practically, situated as we are, that does not
| seem to occur. Practically, unless you can find an example of the form
| you won't know that there is that form. If I cannot find an example
| containing two or more verbs, you will not have reason to believe
| in the theory that such a form occurs.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 41-42.
| Russell, POLA, pp. 82-83.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 20===
<pre>
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts? (cont.)
|
| When you read the words of people like James and Dewey on the subject of belief,
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas
| one thing that strikes you at once is that the sort of thing they are thinking of
| as the object of belief is quite different from the sort of thing I am thinking of.
| They think of it always as a thing. They think you believe in God or Homer: you
| believe in an object. That is the picture they have in their minds. It is common
| enough, in common parlance, to talk that way, and they would say, the first crude
| approximation that they would suggest would be that you believe truly when there
| is such an object and that you believe falsely when there is not. I do not mean
| they would say that exactly, but that would be the crude view from which they
| would start. They do not seem to have grasped the fact that the objective side
| in belief is better expressed by a proposition than by a single word, and that,
| I think, has a great deal to do with their whole outlook on the matter of what
| belief consists of. The object of belief in their view is generally, not
| relations between things, or things having qualities, or what not, but
| just single things which may or may not exist. That view seems to me
| radically and absolutely mistaken.
|
|
| The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most
| In the 'first' place there are a great many judgments you cannot possibly fit into
| that scheme, and in the 'second' place it cannot possibly give any explanation to
| false beliefs, because when you believe that a thing exists and it does not exist,
| fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to
| the thing is not there, it is nothing, and it cannot be the right analysis of a
| false belief to regard it as a relation to what is really nothing.
| Re-evaluation of some statements entails re-evaluation of others,
| being in turn simply certain further statements of the system,
| connections themselves. But the total field is so underdetermined by
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 42-43.
| This an objection to supposing that belief consists simply in relation
| to the object. It is obvious that if you say "I believe in Homer" and
| there was no such person as Homer, your belief cannot be a relation to
| Homer, since there is no "Homer".
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Every fact that occurs in the world must be composed entirely of constituents
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| that there are, and not of constituents that there are not. Therefore when
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| you say "I believe in Homer" it cannot be the right analysis of the thing
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
| to put it like that. What the right analysis is I shall come on to in
| the theory of descriptions.
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 83-84.
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 21===
<pre>
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts? (cont.)
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas (cont.)
|
| I come back now to the theory of behaviourism which I spoke of a moment ago.
| Suppose, e.g. that you are said to believe that there is a train at 10.25.
| This means, we are told, that you start for the station at a certain time.
| When you reach the station you see it is 10.24 and you run. That behaviour
| constitutes your belief that there is a train at that time. If you catch
| your train by running, your belief was true. If the train went at 10.23,
| you miss it, and your belief was false. That is the sort of thing that
| they would say constitutes belief. There is not a single state of mind
| which consists in contemplating this eternal verity, that the train
| starts at 10.25.
|
|
| If this view is right, it is misleading to speak of the empirical content of
| They would apply that even to the most abstract things.
| an individual statement -- especially if it is a statement at all remote from
| I do not myself feel that that view of things is tenable.
| It is a difficult one to refute because it goes very deep
| a boundary between synthetic statements, which hold contingently on experience,
| and one has the feeling that perhaps, if one thought it
| and analytic statements, which hold come what may. Any statement can be held
| out long enough and became sufficiently aware of all
| true come what may, if we make drastic enough adjustments elsewhere in the
| its implications, one might find after all that it
| was a feasible view; but yet I do not 'feel' it
| feasible.
| certain statements of the kind called logical laws. Conversely, by the same
| token, no statement is immune to revision. Revision even of the logical law
| and the shift whereby Kepler superseded Ptolemy, or Einstein Newton, or
|
|
| For vividness I have been speaking in terms of varying distances
| It hangs together, of course, with the theory of neutral monism, with
| the theory that the material constituting the mental is the same as the
| material constituting the physical, just like the Post Office directory
| which gives you people arranged geographically and alphabetically. This
| sense experience -- and in a selective way: some statements to
| whole theory hangs together with that. I do not mean necessarily that
| all the people that profess the one profess the other, but that the
| two do essentially belong together.
| loose association reflecting the relative likelihood, in practice, of
| of recalcitrant experience. For example, we can imagine recalcitrant
| houses on Elm Street, together with related statements on the
| re-evaluations in various alternative quarters of the total
| connection with any particular sense data obtrudes itself.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 43-44.
| If you are going to take that view, you have to explain away belief
| and desire, because things of that sort do seem to be mental phenomena.
| They do seem rather far removed from the sort of thing that happens in
| the physical world. Therefore people will set to work to explain away
| such things as belief, and reduce them to bodily behaviour; and your
| belief in a certain proposition will consist in the behaviour of your
| body. In the crudest terms that is what that view amounts to. It
| does enable you to get on very well without mind.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Truth and falsehood in that case consist in the relation of your
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| bodily behaviour to a certain fact, the sort of distant fact which
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| is the purpose of your behaviour, as it were, and when your behaviour
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
| is satisfactory in regard to that fact your belief is true, and when
| your behaviour is unsatisfactory in regard to that fact your belief
| is false.
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas (cont.)
|
|
| As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as
| The logical essence, in that view, will be a relation between two facts
| having the same sort of form as a causal relation, i.e. on the one hand
| experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation
| there will be your bodily behaviour which is one fact, and on the other
| hand the fact that the train starts at such and such a time, which is
| another fact, and out of a relation of those two the whole phenomenon
| gods of Homer. For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical
| is constituted.
| to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the
| Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits.
| The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most
|
|
| Positing does not stop with macroscopic physical objects.
| The thing you will get will be logically of the same form as you have
| in cause, where you have "This fact causes that fact". It is quite
| a different logical form from the facts containing two verbs that
| simpler and more manageable; and we need not expect or demand
| I am talking of today.
| and it continues the common-sense expedient of swelling ontology to
| simplify theory.
|
|
| Physical objects, small and large, are not the only posits.
| Russell, POLA, pp. 84-86.
|
|
| The over-all algebra of rational and irrational numbers is
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===POLA. Note 22===
<pre>
| 4.1. Are Beliefs, Etc., Irreducible Facts? (concl.)
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas (concl.)
|
|
| Ontological questions, under this view, are on a par with questions
| I have naturally a bias in favour of the theory of neutral monism
| of natural science. Consider the question whether to countenance
| because it exemplifies Occam's razor. I always wish to get on in
| classes as entities. This, as I have argued elsewhere, is the
| philosophy with the smallest possible apparatus, partly because
| question whether to quantify with respect to variables which
| it diminishes the risk of error, because it is not necessary to
| take classes as values. Now Carnap [*] has maintained that
| deny the entities you do not assert, and therefore you run less
| this is a question not of matters of fact but of choosing
| risk of error the fewer entities you assume. The other reason --
| a convenient language form, a convenient conceptual scheme
| perhaps a somewhat frivolous one -- is that every diminution
| or framework for science. With this I agree, but only on the
| in the number of entities increases the amount of work for
| proviso that the same be conceded regarding scientific hypotheses
| mathematical logic to do in building up things that look
| like the entities you used to assume. Therefore the
| preserve a double standard for ontological questions and scientific
| whole theory of neutral monism is pleasing to me,
| but I do find so far very great difficulty in
| believing it.
| this is a distinction which I reject.
|
|
| The issue over there being classes seems more a question of convenient
| You will find a discussion of the whole question in some
| conceptual scheme; the issue over there being centaurs, or brick houses
| articles I wrote in 'The Monist'*, especially in July 1914,
| on Elm street, seems more a question of fact. But I have been urging that
| and in the two previous numbers also. I should really want
| this difference is only one of degree, and that it turns upon our vaguely
| to rewrite them rather because I think some of the arguments
| pragmatic inclination to adjust one strand of the fabric of science rather
| I used against neutral monism are not valid. I place most
| than another in accommodating some particular recalcitrant experience.
| reliance on the argument about "emphatic particulars", "this",
| Conservatism figures in such choices, and so does the quest for
| "I", all that class of words, that pick out certain particulars
| simplicity.
| from the universe by their relation to oneself, and I think by
| the fact that they, or particulars related to them, are present
| to you at the moment of speaking. "This", of course, is what
| I call an "emphatic particular". It is simply a proper name
| for the present object of attention, a proper name, meaning
| nothing. It is ambiguous, because, of course, the object
| of attention is always changing from moment to moment
| and from person to person.
|
|
| Carnap, Lewis, and others take a pragmatic stand on the question of choosing
| I think it is extremely difficult, if you get rid of consciousness
| between language forms, scientific frameworks; but their pragmatism leaves
| altogether, to explain what you mean by such a word as "this", what
| off at the imagined boundary between the analytic and the synthetic. In
| it is that makes the absence of impartiality. You would say that in
| repudiating such a boundary I espouse a more thorough pragmatism. Each
| a purely physical world there would be a complete impartiality. All
| man is given a scientific heritage plus a continuing barrage of sensory
| parts of time and all regions of space would seem equally emphatic.
| stimulation; and the considerations which guide him in warping his
| But what really happens is that we pick out certain facts, past and
| scientific heritage to fit his continuing sensory promptings are,
| future and all that sort of thing; they all radiate out from "this",
| where rational, pragmatic.
| and I have not myself seen how one can deal with the notion of "this"
| on the basis of neutral monism. I do not lay that down dogmatically,
| only I do not see how it can be done. I shall assume for the rest of
| this lecture that there are such facts as beliefs and wishes and so
| forth. It would take me really the whole of my course to go into the
| question fully. Thus we come back to more purely logical questions
| from this excursion into psychology, for which I apologize.
|
|
|*Rudolf Carnap, "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology",
|*Reprinted as: "On the Nature of Acquaintance", pp. 127-174
| in Bertrand Russell, 'Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901-1950',
| Reprinted in Leonard Linsky (ed.), 'Semantics and the Philosophy
| edited by Robert Charles Marsh, Routledge, London, UK, 1992.
| of Language', University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1952.
|
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 45-46.
| Russell, POLA, pp. 86-87.
|
|
| W.V. Quine,
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
</pre>
==VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories==
===POLA. Note 23===
<pre>
<pre>
| 4.2. What is the Status of 'p' in "I believe 'p'"?
|
| You cannot say that you believe 'facts', because your beliefs are
| sometimes wrong. You can say that you 'perceive' facts, because
| perceiving is not liable to error. Wherever it is facts alone
| that are involved, error is impossible. Therefore you cannot
| These are the forms of time,
| say you believe facts. You have to say that you believe
| which imitates eternity and
| propositions. The awkwardness of that is that obviously
| revolves according to a law
| propositions are nothing. Therefore that cannot be the
| of number.
| true account of the matter.
|
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", 38 A,
| When I say "Obviously propositions are nothing" it is not perhaps
| Benjamin Jowett (trans.)
| quite obvious. Time was when I thought there were propositions,
| but it does not seem to me very plausible to say that in addition
| to facts there are also these curious shadowy things going about
| such as "That today is Wednesday" when in fact it is Tuesday.
| I cannot believe they go about the real world. It is more
| than one can manage to believe, and I do think no person
| with a vivid sense of reality can imagine it.
| it is ever uniformly existent; whereas the other is an object of
| must of necessity be beautiful; but whenever he gazes at that which
| with the aid of sensation, come into existence, as we saw, and are generated.
| was on the Eternal; for the Cosmos is the fairest of all that has come
| into existence, and He is the best of all the Causes. So having
| in this wise come into existence, it has been constructed
|
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", 27D-29A.
| One of the difficulties of the study of logic is that it is an
| exceedingly abstract study dealing with the most abstract things
| imaginable, and yet you cannot pursue it properly unless you have
| a vivid instinct as to what is real. You must have that instinct
| rather well developed in logic. I think otherwise you will get
| into fantastic things.
|
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", R.G. Bury (trans.),
| I think Meinong is rather deficient in just that instinct for reality.
|'Plato, Volume 9', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| Meinong maintains that there is such an object as the round square only
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1929.
| it does not exist, and it does not even subsist, but nevertheless there
| is such an object, and when you say "The round square is a fiction",
| he takes it that there is an object "the round square" and there is
| a predicate "fiction". No one with a sense of reality would so
| analyse that proposition. He would see that the proposition
| wants analysing in such a way that you won't have to regard
| the round square as a constituent of that proposition.
|
| To suppose that in the actual world of nature there is a whole set of false
| propositions going about is to my mind monstrous. I cannot bring myself
| to suppose it. I cannot believe that they are there in the sense in
| which facts are there. There seems to me something about the fact
| that "Today is Tuesday" on a different level of reality from the
| supposition "That today is Wednesday". When I speak of the
| proposition "That today is Wednesday" I do not mean the
| occurrence in future of a state of mind in which you
| think it is Wednesday, but I am talking about the
| theory that there is something quite logical,
| something not involving mind in any way; and
| such a thing as that I do not think you can
| take a false proposition to be. I think a
| false proposition must, wherever it occurs,
| be subject to analysis, be taken to pieces,
| pulled to bits, and shown to be simply
| separate pieces of one fact in which
| the false proposition has been
| analysed away. I say that
| simply on the ground of
| what I should call an
| instinct of reality.
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 87-88.
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 24===
<pre>
| 4.2. What is the Status of 'p' in "I believe 'p'"? (concl.)
| Again, if these premisses be granted, it is wholly necessary that this Cosmos
|
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", 29B-29D.
| I ought to say a word or two about "reality". It is a vague word,
| and most of its uses are improper. When I talk about reality as
| I am now doing, I can explain best what I mean by saying that
| I mean everything you would have to mention in a complete
| description of the world; that will convey to you what
| I mean.
|
| Now I do 'not' think that false propositions would have to be
| mentioned in a complete description of the world. False beliefs
| would, of course, false suppositions would, and desires for what
| does not come to pass, but not false propositions all alone, and
| therefore when you, as one says, believe a false proposition, that
| cannot be an accurate account of what occurs.
|
| It is not accurate to say "I believe the proposition 'p'" and
| regard the occurrence as a twofold relation between me and 'p'.
| The logical form is just the same whether you believe a false or
| a true proposition. Therefore in all cases you are not to regard
| belief as a two-term relation between yourself and a proposition,
| and you have to analyse up the proposition and treat your belief
| differently.
|
| Therefore the belief does not really contain a proposition as a constituent
| but only contains the constituents of the proposition as constituents. You
| cannot say when you believe, "What is it that you believe?" There is no
| answer to that question, i.e. there is not a single thing that you are
| believing. "I believe that today is Tuesday." You must not suppose
| that "That today is Tuesday" is a single object which I am believing.
| That would be an error. That is not the right way to analyse the
| occurrence, although that analysis is linguistically convenient,
| and one may keep it provided one knows that it is not the truth.
|
| Russell, POLA, pp. 88-89.
|
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 25===
{| align="center" width="90%"
|
|
<p><b><i>4.3. How shall we describe the logical form of a belief?</i></b></p>
<p>I want to try to get an account of the way that a belief is made up. That is not an easy question at all. You cannot make what I should call a map-in-space of a belief. You can make a map of an atomic fact but not of a belief, for the simple reason that space-relations always are of the atomic sort or complications of the atomic sort. I will try to illustrate what I mean.</p>
<p>The point is in connexion with there being two verbs in the judgment and with the fact that both verbs have got to occur as verbs, because if a thing is a verb it cannot occur otherwise than as a verb.</p>
<p>Suppose I take ‘''A'' believes that ''B'' loves ''C''’. ‘Othello believes that Desdemona loves Cassio’. There you have a false belief. You have this odd state of affairs that the verb ‘loves’ occurs in that proposition and seems to occur as relating Desdemona to Cassio whereas in fact it does not do so, but yet it does occur as a verb, it does occur in the sort of way that a verb should do.</p>
<p>I mean that when ''A'' believes that ''B'' loves ''C'', you have to have a verb in the place where ‘loves’ occurs. You cannot put a substantive in its place. Therefore it is clear that the subordinate verb (i.e. the verb other than believing) is functioning as a verb, and seems to be relating two terms, but as a matter of fact does not when a judgment happens to be false. That is what constitutes the puzzle about the nature of belief.</p>
<p>You will notice that whenever one gets to really close quarters with the theory of error one has the puzzle of how to deal with error without assuming the existence of the non-existent.</p>
<p>I mean that every theory of error sooner or later wrecks itself by assuming the existence of the non-existent. As when I say ‘Desdemona loves Cassio’, it seems as if you have a non-existent love between Desdemona and Cassio, but that is just as wrong as a non-existent unicorn. So you have to explain the whole theory of judgment in some other way.</p>
<p>I come now to this question of a map. Suppose you try such a map as this:</p>
| Many likelihoods informed me of this before,
{| align="center" cellspacing="6" style="text-align:center; width:50%"
|
|
| 'All's Well That Ends Well', 1.3.119-121
<pre>
Othello
|
|
believes
|
v
Desdemona -----------> Cassio
loves
</pre>
|}
<p>This question of making a map is not so strange as you might suppose because it is part of the whole theory of symbolism. It is important to realize where and how a symbolism of that sort would be wrong:</p>
<p>Where and how it is wrong is that in the symbol you have this relationship relating these two things and in the fact it doesn't really relate them. You cannot get in space any occurrence which is logically of the same form as belief.</p>
<p>When I say ‘logically of the same form’ I mean that one can be obtained from the other by replacing the constituents of the one by the new terms.</p>
<p>If I say ‘Desdemona loves Cassio’ that is of the same form as ‘''A'' is to the right of ''B''’.</p>
| We have Reduction [abduction, Greek 'apagoge'] (1) when it is obvious
<p>Those are of the same form, and I say that nothing that occurs in space is of the same form as belief.</p>
| that the first term applies to the middle, but that the middle applies
| to the last term is not obvious, yet nevertheless is more probable or
<p>I have got on here to a new sort of thing, a new beast for our zoo, not another member of our former species but a new species.</p>
| not less probable than the conclusion; or (2) if there are not many
| intermediate terms between the last and the middle; for in all such
<p>The discovery of this fact is due to Mr. Wittgenstein.</p>
| cases the effect is to bring us nearer to knowledge.
<p>Russell, POLA, pp. 89–91.</p>
|}
<p>Bertrand Russell, “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”, pp. 35–155 in ''The Philosophy of Logical Atomism'', edited with an introduction by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.</p>
===POLA. Note 26===
<pre>
| 4.3. How shall we describe the logical form of a belief? (cont.)
|
| There is a great deal that is odd about belief from a
| logical point of view. One of the things that are odd
| is that you can believe propositions of all sorts of forms.
| I can believe that "This is white" and "Two and two are four".
| They are quite different forms, yet one can believe both. The
| actual occurrence can hardly be of exactly the same logical form
| in those two cases because of the great difference in the forms
| of the propositions believed. Therefore it would seem that
| belief cannot strictly be logically one in all different
| cases but must be distinguished according to the nature
| of the proposition that you believe.
|
|
| (1) E.g., let A stand for "that which can be taught", B for "knowledge",
| If you have "I believe p" and I believe q" those two facts, if p and q are
| not of the same logical form, are not of the same logical form in the sense
| but whether virtue is knowledge is not clear. Then if BC is not less
| I was speaking of a moment ago, that is in the sense that from "I believe p"
| probable or is more probable than AC, we have reduction; for we are
| you can derive "I believe q" by replacing the constituents of one by the
| nearer to knowledge for having introduced an additional term, whereas
| constituents of the other.
| before we had no knowledge that AC is true.
|
|
| (2) Or again we have reduction if there are not many intermediate terms
| That means that belief itself cannot be treated as being a proper sort of
| between B and C; for in this case too we are brought nearer to knowledge.
| single term. Belief will really have to have different logical forms
| E.g., suppose that D is "to square", E "rectilinear figure" and F "circle".
| according to the nature of what is believed. So that the apparent
| sameness of believing in different cases is more or less illusory.
| circle becomes equal to a rectilinear figure by means of lunules -- we should
|
|
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics", 2.25.
| Russell, POLA, p. 91.
|
|
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics",
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Hugh Tredennick (trans.), in:
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1938, 1983.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 27===
<pre>
| 4.3. How shall we describe the logical form of a belief? (concl.)
| A probability [Greek 'eikos'] is not the same as a sign ['semeion'].
|
|
| An enthymeme is a syllogism from probabilities or signs;
| There are really two main things that one wants to notice in this matter that
| and a sign can be taken in three ways -- in just as many ways
| I am treating of just now. The 'first' is the impossibility of treating the
| as there are of taking the middle term in the several figures ...
| proposition believed as an independent entity, entering as a unit into the
| occurrence of the belief, and the 'other' is the impossibility of putting
| the subordinate verb on a level with its terms as an object term in the
| belief. That is a point in which I think that the theory of judgment
| which I set forth once in print some years ago was a little unduly
| simple, because I did then treat the object verb as if one could
| put it as just an object like the terms, as if one could put
| "loves" on a level with Desdemona and Cassio as a term for
| the relation "believe". That is why I have been laying
| such an emphasis on this lecture today on the fact
| that there are two verbs at least.
|
|
| We must either classify signs in this way, and regard their middle term as
| I hope you will forgive the fact that so much of what I say today is tentative
| an index ['tekmerion'] (for the name "index" is given to that which causes
| and consists of pointing out difficulties. The subject is not very easy and
| us to know, and the middle term is especially of this nature), or describe
| it has not been much dealt with or discussed. Practically nobody has until
| the arguments drawn from the extremes as "signs", and that which is drawn
| quite lately begun to consider the problem of the nature of belief with
| from the middle as an "index". For the conclusion which is reached through
| anything like a proper logical apparatus and therefore one has very
| the first figure is most generally accepted and most true.
| little to help one in any discussion and so one has to be content
| on many points at present with pointing out difficulties rather
| than laying down quite clear solutions.
|
|
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics", 2.27.
| Russell, POLA, pp. 91-92.
|
|
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics",
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| Hugh Tredennick (trans.), in:
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1938, 1983.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 28===
<pre>
| 4.4. The Question of Nomenclature
|
| What sort of name shall we give to verbs like "believe"
| Rhetoric is a counterpart [Greek 'antistrophos'] of Dialectic;
| and "wish" and so forth? I should be inclined to call
| for both have to do with matters that are in a manner within the
| them "propositional verbs". This is merely a suggested
| cognizance of all men and not confined to any special science.
| name for convenience, because they are verbs which have
| Hence all men in a manner have a share of both; for all, up to
| the 'form' of relating an object to a proposition. As
| I have been explaining, that is not what they really do,
| to defend themselves or to accuse. Now, the majority of people
| but it is convenient to call them propositional verbs.
| do this either at random or with a familiarity arising from habit.
|
| But since both these ways are possible, it is clear that matters
| Of course you might call them "attitudes", but I should not like that
| can be reduced to a system, for it is possible to examine the
| because it is a psychological term, and although all the instances in
| reason why some attain their end by familiarity and others by
| our experience are psychological, there is no reason to suppose that
| chance; and such an examination all would at once admit to be
| all the verbs I am talking of are psychological. There is never any
| the function of an art ['techne']. (1-2)
| reason to suppose that sort of thing.
|
|
| Now, previous compilers of "Arts" of Rhetoric have provided us with
| One should always remember Spinoza's infinite attributes of Deity.
| only a small portion of this art, for proofs are the only things in
| It is quite likely that there are in the world the analogues of his
| it that come within the province of art; everything else is merely
| infinite attributes. We have no acquaintance with them, but there is
| an accessory. And yet they say nothing about enthymemes which are
| no reason to suppose that the mental and the physical exhaust the whole
| the body of proof, but chiefly devote their attention to matters
| universe, so one can never say that all the instances of any logical sort
| outside the subject; for the arousing of prejudice, compassion,
| of thing are of such and such a nature which is not a logical nature: you
| do not know enough about the world for that. Therefore I should not suggest
| hand, but is directed only to the dicast. (3-4)
| that all the verbs that have the form exemplified by believing and willing are
| psychological. I can only say all I know are.
|
|
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.1.1-4.
| Russell, POLA, p. 92.
|
|
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
</pre>
===POLA. Note 29===
<pre>
| 4.4. The Question of Nomenclature (concl.)
|
| I notice that in my syllabus I said I was going to deal with truth and
| It is obvious, therefore, that a system arranged according to the rules of art
| falsehood today, but there is not much to say about them specifically
| is only concerned with proofs; that proof ['pistis'] is a sort of demonstration
| as they are coming in all the time. The thing one first thinks of as
| ['apodeixis'], since we are most strongly convinced when we suppose anything to
| true or false is a proposition, and a proposition is nothing. But a
| have been demonstrated; that rhetorical demonstration is an enthymeme, which,
| belief is true or false in the same way as a proposition is, so that
| generally speaking, is the strongest of rhetorical proofs; and lastly, that
| you do have facts in the world that are true or false.
| the enthymeme is a kind of syllogism. Now, as it is the function of Dialectic
|
| as a whole, or one of its parts, to consider every kind of syllogism in a similar
| I said a while back that there was no distinction of true and false among
| manner, it is clear that he who is most capable of examining the matter and forms
| facts, but as regards that special class of facts that we call "beliefs",
| of a syllogism will be in the highest degree a master of rhetorical argument, if
| there is, in that sense that a belief which occurs may be true or false,
| to this he adds a knowledge of the subjects with which enthymemes deal and the
| though it is equally a fact in either case.
| differences between them and logical syllogisms. For, in fact, the true and that
|
| which resembles it come under the purview of the same faculty, and at the same time
| One 'might' call wishes false in the same sense when one wishes
| men have a sufficient natural capacity for the truth and indeed in most cases attain
| something that does not happen. The truth or falsehood depends
| to it; wherefore one who divines well ['stochastikos echein'] in regard to the truth
| upon the proposition that enters in.
| will also be able to divine well in regard to probabilities ['endoxa'].
|
| I am inclined to think that perception, as opposed to belief, does go
| straight to the fact and not through the proposition. When you perceive
| the fact you do not, of course, have error coming in, because the moment it
| is a fact that is your object error is excluded. I think that verification
| in the last resort would always reduce itself to the perception of facts.
| Therefore the logical form of perception will be different from the logical
| form of believing, just because of that circumstance that it is a 'fact' that
| comes in. That raises also a number of logical difficulties which I do not
| propose to go into, but I think you can see for yourself that perceiving
| would also involve two verbs just as believing does. I am inclined to
| think that volition differs from desire logically, in a way strictly
| analogous to that in which perception differs from belief. But it
| would take us too far from logic to discuss this view.
|
|
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.1.11.
| Russell, POLA, p. 93.
|
|
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", pp. 35-155
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| in 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism', edited with an introduction
| by David Pears, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985. First published 1918.
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
</pre>
==RTOK. Russell's Theory Of Knowledge==
===RTOK. Note 1===
To anchor this thread I will copy out a focal passage from Russell's 1913 manuscript on the “Theory of Knowledge”, that was not published in full until 1984. If there is time, I will then go back and trace more of the development that sets out the background of this excerpt.
===RTOK. Note 2===
{| align="center" width="90%"
| on moral purpose but on the faculty.
|
|
<p>We come now to the last problem which has to be treated in this chapter, namely: What is the logical structure of the fact which consists in a given subject understanding a given proposition? The structure of an understanding varies according to the proposition understood. At present, we are only concerned with the understanding of atomic propositions; the understanding of molecular propositions will be dealt with in Part 3.</p>
<p>Let us again take the proposition "A and B are similar".</p>
<p>It is plain, to begin with, that the 'complex' "A and B being similar", even if it exists, does not enter in, for if it did, we could not understand false propositions, because in their case there is no such complex.</p>
<p>It is plain, also, from what has been said, that we cannot understand the proposition unless we are acquainted with A and B and similarity and the form "something and something have some relation". Apart from these four objects, there does not appear, so far as we can see, to be any object with which we need be acquainted in order to understand the proposition.</p>
<p>It seems to follow that these four objects, and these only, must be united with the subject in one complex when the subject understands the proposition. It cannot be any complex composed of them that enters in, since they need not form any complex, and if they do, we need not be acquainted with it. But they themselves must all enter in, since if they did not, it would be at least theoretically possible to understand the proposition without being acquainted with them.</p>
<p>In this argument, I appeal to the principle that, when we understand, those objects with which we must be acquainted when we understand, and those only, are object-constituents (i.e. constituents other than understanding itself and the subject) of the understanding-complex.</p>
<p>(Russell, TOK, pp. 116–117).</p>
|}
<p>Bertrand Russell, ''Theory of Knowledge : The 1913 Manuscript'', edited by Elizabeth Ramsden Eames in collaboration with Kenneth Blackwell, Routledge, London, UK, 1992. First published, George Allen and Unwin, 1984.</p>
===RTOK. Note 3===
| But for purposes of demonstration, real or apparent, just as Dialectic possesses
{| align="center" width="90%"
|
|
<p>It follows that, when a subject S understands "A and B are similar", "understanding" is the relating relation, and the terms are S and A and B and similarity and R(x, y), where R(x, y) stands for the form "something and something have some relation". Thus a first symbol for the complex will be:</p>
<center>U{S, A, B, similarity, R(x, y)}.</center>
<p>This symbol, however, by no means exhausts the analysis of the form of the understanding-complex. There are many kinds of five-term complexes, and we have to decide what the kind is.</p>
<p>It is obvious, in the first place, that S is related to the four other terms in a way different from that in which any of the four other terms are related to each other.</p>
<p>(It is to be observed that we can derive from our five-term complex a complex having any smaller number of terms by replacing any one or more of the terms by "something". If S is replaced by "something", the resulting complex is of a different form from that which results from replacing any other term by "something". This explains what is meant by saying that S enters in a different way from the other constituents.)</p>
<p>It is obvious, in the second place, that R(x, y) enters in a different way from the other three objects, and that "similarity" has a different relation to R(x, y) from that which A and B have, while A and B have the same relation to R(x, y). Also, because we are dealing with a proposition asserting a symmetrical relation between A and B, A and B have each the same relation to "similarity", whereas, if we had been dealing with an asymmetrical relation, they would have had different relations to it. Thus we are led to the following map of our five-term complex:</p>
<pre>
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
A o
\ <
^\ *
\ *
% \ *
\ *
% \ R(x, y) *
o------o------> o---------<---------o Similarity
% / ^ * ^
/ | * /
/% | * /
/ |* /
/ % * | /
/ < | /
B o % | /
^ | /
\ % | /
\ | /
\ % | /
\ | /
\ % | /
\ | /
\ % | /
\ | /
\ % | /
\ | /
\%| /
\| /
o
S
</pre>
<p>In this figure, one relation goes from S to the four objects; one relation goes from R(x, y) to similarity, and another to A and B, while one relation goes from similarity to A and B.</p>
<p>This figure, I hope, will help to make clearer the map of our five-term complex. But to explain in detail the exact abstract meaning of the various items in the figure would demand a lengthy formal logical discussion. Meanwhile the above attempt must suffice, for the present, as an analysis of what is meant by "understanding a proposition".</p>
<p>(Russell, TOK, pp. 117–118).</p>
|}
<p>Bertrand Russell, ''Theory of Knowledge : The 1913 Manuscript'', edited by Elizabeth Ramsden Eames in collaboration with Kenneth Blackwell, Routledge, London, UK, 1992. First published, George Allen and Unwin, 1984.</p>
==RTOP. Russell's Treatise On Propositions==
|
===RTOP. Note 1===
September creeps forward on little cheetah's feet, and I cannot say when I will be able to return to these issues in any detail, so for the time being I'll just record what I regard as one significant passage from Russell's paper “On Propositions”.
===RTOP. Note 2===
<pre>
| On Propositions: What They Are and How They Mean (1919)
| a 'tekmerion'; for only in this case, if the fact is true, is the argument
|
|
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.18
| Let us illustrate the content of a belief
| by an example. Suppose I am believing,
| but not in words, that "it will rain".
| What is happening?
|
| (1) Images, say, of the visual appearance of rain,
| the feeling of wetness, the patter of drops,
| interrelated, roughly, as the sensations
| would be if it were raining, i.e., there
| is a complex 'fact composed of images',
| having a structure analogous to that
| of the objective fact which would
| make the belief true.
|
| (2) There is 'expectation', i.e.,
| that form of belief which
| refers to the future;
| we shall examine
| this shortly.
|
| (3) There is a relation between (1) and (2),
| making us say that (1) is "what is expected".
| This relation also demands investigation.
|
| The most important thing about a proposition is that, whether
| it consists of images or of words, it is, whenever it occurs, an
| actual fact, having a certain analogy -- to be further investigated --
| with the fact which makes it true or false. A word-proposition, apart
| from niceties, "means" the corresponding image-proposition, and an
| image-proposition has an objective reference dependent upon the
| meanings of its constituent images.
|
| Russell, OP, p. 309.
|
|
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| Bertrand Russell,
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
|"On Propositions: What They Are And How They Mean" (1919),
| pp. 285-320 in 'Logic and Knowledge: Essays, 1901-1950',
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
| edited by Robert Charles Marsh, Routledge, London, UK, 1956.
</pre>
==SABI. Synthetic/Analytic ≟ Boundary/Interior==
<pre>
Let's go back to Quine's topological metaphor:
the "web of belief", "fabric of knowledge",
or "epistemological field theory" picture,
and see if we can extract something that
might be useful in our present task,
settling on a robust architecture
for generic knowledge bases.
| We have now stated the materials of proofs which are thought to be demonstrative.
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas
| But a very great difference between enthymemes has escaped the notice of nearly
|
| every one, although it also exists in the dialectical method of syllogisms.
| The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most
| For some of them belong to Rhetoric, some syllogisms only to Dialectic,
| casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of
| and others to other arts and faculties, some already existing and
| atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made
| others not yet established. Hence its is that this escapes
| fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to
| the notice of the speakers, and the more they specialize
| change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose
| in a subject, the more they transgress the limits of
| boundary conditions are experience. A conflict with experience at
| Rhetoric and Dialectic. But this will be clearer
| the periphery occasions readjustments in the interior of the field.
| if stated at greater length.
| Truth values have to be redistributed over some of our statements.
| Re-evaluation of some statements entails re-evaluation of others,
| because of their logical interconnections -- the logical laws
| being in turn simply certain further statements of the system,
| certain further elements of the field. Having re-evaluated one
| statement we must re-evaluate some others, which may be statements
| logically connected with the first or may be the statements of logical
| connections themselves. But the total field is so underdetermined by
| its boundary conditions, experience, that there is much latitude of
| choice as to what statements to re-evaluate in the light of any
| single contrary experience. No particular experiences are
| linked with any particular statements in the interior of
| the field, except indirectly through considerations
| of equilibrium affecting the field as a whole.
|
|
| I mean by dialectical and rhetorical syllogisms those which are concerned with what
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 42-43.
|
|
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.20-22
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
|
|
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04935.html
There are some things that I am not trying to do.
One of them is reducing natural language to math,
and another is reducing math to natural language.
So I tend to regard the usual sorts of examples,
Bachelors and Hesperus and Phosphorus and so on,
as being useful for stock illustrations only so
long as nobody imagines that all we do with our
natural languages can really be ruled that way.
The semantics of natural language is more like
the semantics of music, and it would take many
octaves of 8-track tapes just to keep track of
all the meaning that is being layered into it.
So let me resort to a mathematical example, where Frege really lived,
and where all of this formal semantics stuff really has Frege's ghost
of a chance of actually making sense someday, if hardly come what may.
There is a "clear" distinction between equations like 2 = 0 and x = x,
that are called "noncontingent equations", because they have constant
truth values for all values of whatever variables they may have, and
equations like x^2 + 1 = 0, that are called "contingent equations",
because they are have different truth values for different values
of their variables.
But wait a minute, you or somebody says, the equation x^2 + 1 = 0 is false
for all values of its variables, and of course I remind you that it does
have solutions in the complex domain C. So models of numbers really
are as fleeting as models of cars. And this explains the annoying
habit that mathematicians have of constantly indexing formulas
with the names of the mathematical domains over which they
are intended to be interpreted as having their values.
And then someone else reminds us that 2 = 0 is true mod 2.
Those are the types of examples that I would like to keep in mind when we examime
the relativity of the analytic/synthetic distinction, or, to put a finer point on
this slippery slope, the contingency of the noncontingent/contingent distinction.
</pre>
==SYNF. Syntactic Fallacy==
<pre>
A syntactic fallacy is an error of mistaking
the properties of signs for the properties
of objects (that they may or may not have).
For example, from the fact that signs exist, are actual,
possible, necessary, or related in various syntactic ways,
nothing follows about the existence, actuality, possibility,
necessity, or objective relationships of their objects, since
it is conceivable that a sign does not denote anything at all.
Notice that a syntactic fallacy is an error even when signs are icons,
that is, when they propose a denotation of their objects by virtue of
sharing certain properties with them.
So watch out for that ...
</pre>
==TDOE. Quine's Two Dogmas Of Empiricism==
===TDOE. Note 1===
<pre>
| Two Dogmas of Empiricism
|
| Modern empiricism has been conditioned in large part by two dogmas.
| One is a belief in some fundamental cleavage between truths which
| are 'analytic', or grounded in meanings independently of matters
| of fact, and truths which are 'synthetic', or grounded in fact.
| The other dogma is 'reductionism': the belief that each
| meaningful statement is equivalent to some logical
| construct upon terms which refer to immediate
| experience. Both dogmas, I shall argue, are
| ill-founded. One effect of abandoning them
| is, as we shall see, a blurring of the
| supposed boundary between speculative
| metaphysics and natural science.
| Another effect is a shift
| toward pragmatism.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 20.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 2===
<pre>
| 1. Background for Analyticity
|
| Kant's cleavage between analytic and synthetic truths
| was foreshadowed in Hume's distinction between relations
| of ideas and matters of fact, and in Leibniz's distinction
| between truths of reason and truths of fact. Leibniz spoke
| of the truths of reason as true in all possible worlds.
| Picturesqueness aside, this is to say that the truths
| of reason are those which could not possibly be false.
| In the same vein we hear analytic statements defined as
| statements whose denials are self-contradictory. But this
| definition has small explanatory value; for the notion of
| self-contradictoriness, in the quite broad sense needed for
| this definition of analyticity, stands in exactly the same
| need of clarification as does the notion of analyticity
| itself. The two notions are the two sides of a single
| dubious coin.
|
| Kant conceived of an analytic statement as one that attributes to its
| subject no more than is already conceptually contained in the subject.
| This formulation has two shortcomings: it limits itself to statements of
| subject-predicate form, and it appeals to a notion of containment which is
| left at a metaphorical level. But Kant's intent, evident more from the use
| he makes of the notion of analyticity than from his definition of it, can be
| restated thus: a statement is analytic when it is true by virtue of meanings
| and independently of fact. Pursuing this line, let us examine the concept of
| 'meaning' which is presupposed.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 20-21.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 3===
<pre>
| There is a continuity between approximate (likely, probable)
| 1. Background for Analyticity (cont.)
| and apodeictic (demonstrative, exact) patterns of reasoning,
|
| with the latter being the limiting ideal of the former type.
| Meaning, let us remember, is not to be identified with naming.
| Frege's example of "Evening Star" and "Morning Star", and Russell's
| of "Scott" and "the author of 'Waverley'", illustrate that terms can
| name the same thing but differ in meaning. The distinction between
| meaning and naming is no less important at the level of abstract
| terms. The terms "9" and "the number of the planets" name one
| and the same abstract entity but presumably must be regarded as
| unlike in meaning; for astronomical observation was needed, and
| not mere reflection on meanings, to determine the sameness of the
| entity in question.
|
| The above examples consists of singular terms, concrete and
| abstract. With general terms, or predicates, the situation
| is somewhat different but parallel. Whereas a singular term
| purports to name an entity, abstract or concrete, a general
| term does not; but a general term is 'true of' an entity,
| or of each of many, or of none. The class of all entities
| of which a general term is true is called the 'extension'
| of the term. Now paralleling the contrast between the
| meaning of a singular term and the entity named, we
| must distinguish equally between the meaning of a
| general term and its extension. The general terms
| "creature with a heart" and "creature with kidneys",
| for example, are perhaps alike in extension but unlike
| in meaning.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 21.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 4===
<pre>
| 1. Background for Analyticity (cont.)
in empirical reasoning takes a form like this:
|
| Confusion of meaning with extension, in the case of general terms,
| is less common than confusion of meaning with naming in the case
that a couple of factors X and Y are independent,
| of singular terms. It is indeed a commonplace in philosophy to
| oppose intension (or meaning) to extension, or, in a variant
| vocabulary, connotation to denotation.
|
| The Aristotelian notion of essence was the forerunner, no doubt,
of possible outcomes have probabilities
| of the modern notion of intension or meaning. For Aristotle it
of happening that are very near to zero.
| was essential in men to be rational, accidental to be two-legged.
| But there is an important difference between this attitude and the
| doctrine of meaning. From the latter point of view it may indeed
| be conceded (if only for the sake of argument) that rationality is
| involved in the meaning of the word "man" while two-leggedness is
| not; but two-leggedness may at the same time be viewed as involved
| in the meaning of "biped" while rationality is not. Thus from the
| point of view of the doctrine of meaning it makes no sense to say
| of the actual individual, who is at once a man and a biped, that
| his rationality is essential and his two-leggedness accidental
| or vice versa. Things had essences, for Aristotle, but only
| linguistic forms have meanings. Meaning is what essence
| becomes when it is divorced from the object of reference
| and wedded to the word.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 21-22.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 5===
<pre>
| 1. Background for Analyticity (cont.)
|
|
| Maxim Gorky, 'Creatures That Once Were Men'
| For the theory of meaning a conspicuous question is the nature
| of its objects: what sort of things are meanings? A felt need
| for meant entities may derive from an earlier failure to appreciate
which is to say that he puts the interpreter back into the
| that meaning and reference are distinct. Once the theory of meaning
| is sharply separated from the theory of reference, it is a short step
| to recognizing as the primary business of the theory of meaning simply
| the synonymy of linguistic forms and the analyticity of statements;
| meanings themselves, as obscure intermediary entities, may well be
| abandoned.
|
| The problem of analyticity then confronts us anew. Statements which are
| analytic by general philosophical acclaim are not, indeed, far to seek.
| They fall into two classes. Those of the first class, which may be
| called 'logically true', are typified by:
|
| (1) No unmarried man is married.
|
| The relevant feature of this example is that it not merely
| is true as it stands, but remains true under any and all
| reinterpretations of "man" and "married". If we suppose
| a prior inventory of 'logical' particles, comprising "no",
| "un-", "not", "if", "then", "and", etc., then in general
| a logical truth is a statement which is true and remains
| true under all reinterpretations of its components than
| than the logical particles.
|
| But there is also a second class of analytic statements,
| typified by:
|
| (2) No bachelor is married.
|
| The characteristic of such a statement is that it can be
| turned into a logical truth by putting synonyms for synonyms;
| thus (2) can be turned into (1) by putting "unmarried man" for
| its synonym "bachelor". We still lack a proper characterization
| of this second class of analytic statements, and therewith of
| analyticity generally, inasmuch as we have had in the above
| description to lean on a notion of "synonymy" which is no
| less in need of clarification than analyticity itself.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 22-23.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 6===
> P1. "we think each one of our beliefs to be true,
<pre>
| 1. Background for Analyticity (concl.)
|
| In recent years Carnap has tended to explain analyticity by appeal to
| what he calls state-descriptions. A state-description is any exhaustive
| assignment of truth values to the atomic, or noncompound, statements of
| the language. All other statements of the language are, Carnap assumes,
| built up of their component clauses by means of familiar logical devices,
| in such a way that the truth value of any complex statement is fixed for
| each state-description by specifiable logical laws. A statement is then
| explained as analytic when it comes out true under every state-description.
| This account is an adaptation of Leibniz's "true in all possible worlds".
| But note that this version of analyticity serves its purpose only if the
| atomic statements of the language are, unlike "John is a bachelor" and
| "John is married", mutually independent. Otherwise there would be a
| state-description which assigned truth to "John is a bachelor" and to
| "John is married", and consequently "No bachelors are married" would
| turn out synthetic rather than analytic under the proposed criterion.
| Thus the criterion of analyticity in terms of state-descriptions
| serves only for languages devoid of extralogical synonym-pairs,
| such as "bachelor" and "unmarried man" -- synonym-pairs of the
| type which give rise to the "second class" of analytic statements.
| The criterion in terms of state-descriptions is a reconstruction
| at best of logical truth, not of analyticity.
|
| I do not mean to suggest that Carnap is under any illusions on this
| point. His simplified model language with its state-descriptions
| is aimed primarily not at the general problem of analyticity but
| at another purpose, the clarification of probability and induction.
| Our problem, however, is analyticity; and here the major difficulty
| lies not in the first class of analytic statements, the logical truths,
| but rather in the second class, which depends on the notion of synonymy.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 23-24.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 7===
<pre>
| 2. Definition
|
| There are those who find it soothing to say that the analytic statements
| of the second class reduce to those of the first class, the logical truths,
| by 'definition'; "bachelor", for example, is 'defined' as "unmarried man".
"referential opacity" or "non-substitutability of identicals"
| But how do we find that "bachelor" is defined as "unmarried man"? Who
in intentional contexts, which is a typical symptom of using
| defined it thus, and when? Are we to appeal to the nearest dictionary,
| and accept the lexicographer's formulation as law? Clearly this would
| be to put the cart before the horse. The lexicographer is an empirical
of them shy away on the usual out-Occaming Occam grounds.
| scientist, whose business is the recording of antecedent facts; and if
| he glosses "bachelor" as "unmarried man" it is because of his belief that
| there is a relation of synonymy between those forms, implicit in general or
| preferred usage prior to his own work. The notion of synonymy presupposed
| here has still to be clarified, presumably in terms relating to linguistic
| behavior. Certainly the "definition" which is the lexicographer's report
| of an observed synonymy cannot be taken as the ground of the synonymy.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 24.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 8===
<pre>
| 2. Definition (cont.)
|
| Definition is not, indeed, an activity exclusively of philologists.
| Philosophers and scientists frequently have occasion to "define"
| a recondite term by paraphrasing it into terms of a more familiar
| vocabulary. But ordinarily such a definition, like the philologist's,
| is pure lexicography, affirming a relation of synonymy antecedent to
| the exposition in hand.
|
| Just what it means to affirm synonymy, just what the interconnections
| may be which are necessary and sufficient in order that two linguistic
| forms be properly describable as synonymous, is far from clear; but,
| whatever these interconnections may be, ordinarily they are grounded
| in usage. Definitions reporting selected instances of synonymy come
| then as reports upon usage.
|
| There is also, however, a variant type of definitional activity which does
| not limit itself to the reporting of pre-existing synonymies. I have in
| mind what Carnap calls 'explication' -- an activity to which philosophers
| are given, and scientists also in their more philosophical moments. In
| explication the purpose is not merely to paraphrase the definiendum into
| an outright synonym, but actually to improve upon the definiendum by
| refining or supplementing its meaning. But even explication, though
| not merely reporting a pre-existing synonymy between definiendum and
| definiens, does rest nevertheless on 'other' pre-existing synonymies.
| The matter might be viewed as follows. Any word worth explicating
| has some contexts which, as wholes, are clear and precise enough
| to be useful; and the purpose of explication is to preserve the
| usage of these favored contexts while sharpening the usage of
| other contexts. In order that a given definition be suitable
| for purposes of explication, therefore, what is required is not
| that the definiendum in its antecedent usage be synonymous with
| the definiens, but just that each of these favored contexts of
| the definiendum, taken as a whole in its antecedent usage, be
| synonymous with the corrsponding context of the definiens.
|
| Two alternative definientia may be equally appropriate for the purposes
| of a given task of explication and yet not be synonymous with each other;
| for they may serve interchangeably within the favored contexts but diverge
| elsewhere. By cleaving to one of these definientia rather than the other,
| a definition of explicative kind generates, by fiat, a relation of synonymy
| between definiendum and definiens which did not hold before. But such a
| definition still owes its explicative function, as seen, to pre-existing
| synonymies.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 24-25.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 9===
<pre>
| 2. Definition (cont.)
|
| There does, however, remain still an extreme sort of definition
| which does not hark back to prior synonymies at all: namely,
| the explicitly conventional introduction of novel notations
| for purposes of sheer abbreviation. Here the definiendum
| becomes synonymous with the definiens simply because it
| has been created expressly for the purpose of being
| synonymous with the definiens. Here we have a
| really transparent case of synonymy created
| by definition; would that all species of
| synonymy were as intelligible. For the
| rest, definition rests on synonymy
| rather than explaining it.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 25-26.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 10===
<pre>
| 2. Definition (concl.)
|
| The word "definition" has come to have a dangerously reassuring sound,
| owing no doubt to its frequent occurrence in logical and mathematical
| writings. We shall do well to digress now into a brief appraisal of
| the role of definition in formal work.
of the alternate directions that I indicated, all of them arising from
|
the substance and the intent of Peirce's work.
| In logical and mathematical systems either of two mutually antagonistic
| types of economy may be striven for, and each has its peculiar practical
| utility. On the one hand we may seek economy of practical expression --
| ease and brevity in the statement of multifarious relations. This sort
| of economy calls usually for distinctive concise notations for a wealth
| of concepts. Second, however, and oppositely, we may seek economy in
| grammar and vocabulary; we may try to find a minimum of basic concepts
| such that, once a distinctive notation has been appropriated to each of
| them, it becomes possible to express any desired further concept by mere
| combination and iteration of our basic notations. This second sort of
| economy is impractical in one way, since a poverty in basic idioms tends
| to a necessary lengthening of discourse. But it is practical in another
| way: it greatly simplifies theoretical discourse 'about' the language,
| through minimizing the terms and the forms of construction wherein the
| language consists.
|
| Both sorts of economy, though prima facie incompatible, are valuable in
| their separate ways. The custom has consequently arisen of combining
| both sorts of economy by forging in effect two langauges, the one
| a part of the other. The inclsuive language, though redundant
| in grammar and vocabulary, is economical in message lengths,
| while the part, called primitive notation, is economical in
| grammar and vocabulary. Whole and part are correlated by
| rules of translation whereby each idiom not in primitive
| notation is equated to some complex built up of primitive
| notation. These rules of translation are the so-called
| 'definitions' which appear in formalized systems. They
| are best viewed not as adjuncts to one language but as
| correlations between two languages, the one a part of
| the other.
|
| But these correlations are not arbitrary. They are supposed
| to show how the primitive notations can accomplish all purposes,
| save brevity and convenience, of the redundant language. Hence
| the definiendum and its definiens may be expected, in each case,
| to be related in one or another of the three ways lately noted.
| The definiens may be a faithful paraphrase of the definiendum
| into the narrower notation, preseving a direct synonymy* as
| of antecedent usage; or the definiens may, in the spirit
| of explication, improve upon the antecedent usage of the
| definiendum; or finally, the definiendum may be a newly
| created notation, newly endowed with meaning here and now.
|
| In formal and informal work alike, thus, we find
| that definition -- except in the extreme case of the
| explicitly conventional introduction of new notations --
| hinges on prior relations of synonymy. Recognizing then
| that the notion of definition does not hold the key to
| synonymy and analyticity, let us look further into
| synonymy and say no more of definition.
|
|*According to an important variant sense of "definition", the relation
| preserved may be the weaker relation of mere agreement in reference;
| see below, p. 132. But definition in this sense is better ignored in
| the present connection, being irrelevant to the question of synonymy.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 26-27.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 11===
> P1. "we think each one of our beliefs to be true,
<pre>
| 3. Interchangeability
|
| A natural suggestion, deserving close examination, is that the synonymy
| of two linguistic forms consists simply in their interchangeability in
| all contexts without change of truth value -- interchangeability, in
| Leibniz's phrase 'salva veritate'. Note that synonyms so conceived
| need not even be free from vagueness, as long as the vaguenesses
| match.
|
| But it is not quite true that the synonyms "bachelor" and "unmarried man"
| are everywhere interchangeable 'salva veritate'. Truths which become false
| under substitution of "unmarried man" for "bachelor" are easily constructed
| with the help of "bachelor of arts" or "bachelor's buttons"; also with the
| help of quotation, thus:
|
| "Bachelor" has less than ten letters.
|
| Such counterinstances can, however, be set aside by treating
| the phrases "bachelor of arts" and "bachelor's buttons" and the
| quotation '"bachelor"' each as a single indivisible word and then
| stipulating that the interchangeability 'salva veritate' which
| is to be the touchstone of synonymy is not supposed to apply
| to fragmentary occurrences inside of a word. This account of
| synonymy, supposing it acceptable on other counts, has indeed
| the drawback of appealing to a prior conception of "word" which
| can be counted on to present difficulties of formulation in its
| turn. Nevertheless some progress might be claimed in having
| reduced the problem of synonymy to a problem of wordhood.
| Let us pursue this line a bit, taking "word" for granted.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 27-28.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 12===
<pre>
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
|
| The question remains whether interchangeability
| 'salva veritate' (apart from occurrences within words)
| is a strong enough condition for synonymy, or whether,
| on the contrary, some heteronymous expressions might be thus
| interchangeable. Now let us be clear that we are not concerned
| here with synonymy in the sense of complete identity in psychological
| associations or poetic quality; indeed no two expressions are synonymous
| in such a sense. We are concerned only with what may be called 'cognitive'
| synonymy. Just what this is cannot be said without successfully finishing the
| present study; but we know something about it from the need which arose for
| it in connection with analyticity in Section 1. The sort of synonymy needed
| there was merely such that any analytic statement could be turned into a
| logical truth by putting synonyms for synonyms. Turning the tables and
| assuming analyticity, indeed, we could explain cognitive synonymy of
| terms as follows (keeping to the familiar example): to say that
| "bachelor" and "unmarried man" are cognitively synonymous is
| to say no more or less than that the statement:
|
| (3) All and only bachelors are unmarried men
|
| is analytic.*
|
|*This is cognitive synonymy in a primary, broad sense. Carnap ([3],
| pp. 56ff) and Lewis ([2], pp. 83ff) have suggested how, once this
| notion is at hand, a narrower sense of cognitive synonymy which
| is preferable for some purposes can in turn be derived. But
| this special ramification of concept-building lies aside
| from the present purposes and must not be confused with
| the broad sort of cognitive synonymy here concerned.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 28-29.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 13===
<pre>
1. A is true, in which case one is now wrong to believe ~A.
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
|
| What we need is an account of cognitive synonymy
| not presupposing analyticity -- if we are to explain
| analyticity conversely with help of cognitive synonymy
| as undertaken in Section 1. And indeed such an independent
| account of cognitive synonymy is at present up for consideration,
| namely, interchangeability 'salva veritate' everywhere except within
| words. The question before us, to resume the thread at last, is whether
| such interchangeability is a sufficient condition for cognitive synonymy.
| We can quickly assure ourselves that it is, by examples of the following
| sort. The statement:
|
| (4) Necessarily all and only bachelors are bachelors
|
| is evidently true, even supposing "necessarily" so narrowly construed as
| to be truly applicable only to analytic statements. Then, if "bachelor"
| and "unmarried man" are interchangeable 'salva veritate', the result:
|
| (5) Necessarily all and only bachelors are unmarried men
|
| of putting "unmarried man" for an occurrence of "bachelor" in (4) must,
| like (4), be true. But to say that (5) is true is to say that (3) is
| analytic, and hence that "bachelor" and "unmarried man" are cognitively
| synonymous.
|
| Let us see what there is about the above argument that gives it its air
| of hocus-pocus. The condition of interchangeability 'salva veritate'
| varies in its force with variations in the richness of the language
| at hand. The above argument supposes we are working with a language
| rich enough to contain the adverb "necessarily", this adverb being so
| construed as to yield truth when and only when applied to an analytic
| statement. But can we condone a language which contains such an adverb?
| Does the adverb really make sense? To suppose that it does is to suppose
| that we have already made satisfactory sense of "analytic". Then what are
| we so hard at work on right now?
|
| Our argument is not flatly circular, but something like it.
| It has the form, figuratively speaking, of a closed curve
| in space.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 29-30.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 14===
<pre>
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
|
| Interchangeability 'salva veritate' is meaningless until relativized to
| a language whose extent is specified in relevant respects. Suppose now
| we consider a language containing just the following materials. There
| is an indefinitely large stock of one-place predicates, (for example,
| "F" where "Fx" means that x is a man) and many-place predicates (for
| example, "G" where "Gxy" means that x loves y), mostly having to
| do with extralogical subject matter. The rest of the language
| is logical. The atomic sentences consist each of a predicate
| followed by one or more variables "x", "y", etc.; and the
| complex sentences are built up of the atomic ones by truth
| functions ("not", "and", "or", etc.) and quantification.
| In effect such a language enjoys the benefits also of
| descriptions and indeed singular terms generally,
| these being contextually definable in known ways.
| Even abstract singular terms naming classes,
| classes of classes, etc., are contextually
| definable in case the assumed stock of
| predicates includes the two-place
| predicate of class membership.
| Such a language can be adequate
of what Peirce said, and although
| to classical mathematics and
| indeed to scientific discourse
| generally, except in so far as
| the latter involves debatable
| devices such as contrary-to-fact
| conditionals or modal adverbs like
| "necessarily". Now a language of this
| type is extensional, in this sense: any
| two predicates which agree extensionally
| (that is, are true of the same objects)
of a true sentence.
| are interchangeable 'salva veritate'.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 30.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 15===
<pre>
| 3. Interchangeability (cont.)
|
| In an extensional language, therefore, interchangeability
| 'salva veritate' is no assurance of cognitive synonymy of
| the desired type. That "bachelor" and "unmarried man" are
| interchangeable 'salva veritate' in an extensional language
| assures us of no more than that (3) is true. There is no
| assurance here that the extensional agreement of "bachelor"
| and "unmarried man" rests on meaning rather than merely on
| accidental matters of fact, as does the extensional agreement
| of "creature with a heart" and "creature with kidneys".
|
| For most purposes extensional agreement is the nearest approximation
| to synonymy we need care about. But the fact remains that extensional
| agreement falls far short of cognitive synonymy of the type required for
| explaining analyticity in the manner of Section 1. The type of cognitive
| synonymy required there is such as to equate the synonymy of "bachelor"
| and "unmarried man" with the analyticity of (3), not merely with the
| truth of (3).
|
| So we must recognize that interchangeability 'salva veritate',
| if construed in relation to an extensional language, is not
| a sufficient condition of cognitive synonymy in the sense
| needed for deriving analyticity in the manner of Section 1.
| If a language contains an intensional adverb "necessarily" in
| the sense lately noted, or other particles to the same effect,
| then interchangeability 'salva veritate' in such a language
| does afford a sufficient condition of cognitive synonymy;
| but such a language is intelligible only in so far as the
| notion of analyticity is already understood in advance.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 31.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 16===
<pre>
| 3. Interchangeability (concl.)
|
| The effort to explain cognitive synonymy first, for the sake
| of deriving analyticity from it afterward as in Section 1, is
| perhaps the wrong approach. Instead we might try explaining
| analyticity somehow without appeal to cognitive synonymy.
| Afterward we could doubtless derive cognitive synonymy from
| analyticity satisfactorily enough if desired. We have seen
| that cognitive synonymy of "bachelor" and "unmarried man" can
| be explained as analyticity of (3). The same explanation works
| for any pair of one-place predicates, of course, and it can
| be extended in obvious fashion to many-place predicates.
| Other syntactical categories can also be accommodated in
| fairly parallel fashion. Singular terms may be said to be
| cognitively synonymous when the statement of identity formed
| by putting "=" between them is analytic. Statements may be said
| simply to be cognitively synonymous when their biconditional (the
| result of joining them by "if and only if") is analytic. If we
| care to lump all categories into a single formulation, at the
| expense of assuming again the notion of "word" which was
| appealed to early in this section, we can describe any two
| linguistic forms as cognitively synonymous when the two forms
| are interchangeable (apart from occurrences within "words")
| 'salva' (no longer 'veritate' but) 'analyticitate'. Certain
| technical questions arise, indeed, over cases of ambiguity
| or homonymy; let us not pause for them, however, for we
| are already digressing. Let us rather turn our backs
| on the problem of synonymy and address ourselves
| anew to that of analyticity.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 31-32.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 17===
<pre>
| 4. Semantical Rules
|
| Analyticity at first seemed most naturally definable by appeal
| to a realm of meanings. On refinement, the appeal to meanings
| gave way to an appeal to synonymy or definition. But definition
| turned out to be a will-o'-the-wisp, and synonymy turned out to be
| best understood only by dint of a prior appeal to analyticity itself.
| So we are back at the problem of analyticity.
|
| I do not know whether the statement "Everything green is extended"
| is analytic. Now does my indecision over this example really betray
| an incomplete understanding, an incomplete grasp of the "meanings",
| of "green" and "extended"? I think not. The trouble is not with
| "green" or "extended", but with "analytic".
|
| It is often hinted that the difficulty in separating analytic
| statements from synthetic ones in ordinary language is due to
| the vagueness of ordinary language and that the distinction is
| clear when we have a precise artificial language with explicit
| "semantical rules". This, however, as I shall now attempt to
| show, is a confusion.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 32.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 18===
<pre>
| 4. Semantical Rules (cont.)
|
| The notion of analyticity about which we are worrying is a purported
| relation between statements and languages: a statement S is said to
| be 'analytic for' a language L, and the problem is to make sense of
| this relation generally, that is, for variable "S" and "L". The
| gravity of this problem is not perceptibly less for artificial
| languages than for natural ones. The problem of making sense
| of the idiom "S is analytic for L", with variable "S" and "L",
| retains its stubbornness even if we limit the range of the
| variable "L" to artificial languages. Let me now try to
| make this point evident.
"But Ma, he hit me first!", and I long ago
|
| For artificial languages and semantical rules we look naturally
| to the writings of Carnap. His semantical rules take various forms,
| and to make my point I shall have to distinguish certain of the forms.
| Let us suppose, to begin with, an artificial language L_0 whose semantical
| rules have the form explicitly of a specification, by recursion or otherwise,
| of all the analytic statements of L_0. The rules tell us that such and such
| statements, and only those, are the analytic statements of L_0. Now here
| the difficulty is simply that the rules contain the word "analytic",
| which we do not understand! We understand what expressions the
| rules attribute analyticity to, but we do not understand what
| the rules attribute to those expressions. In short, before
| we can understand a rule which begins "A statement S is
| analytic for language L_0 if and only if ...", we must
| understand the general relative term "analytic for";
| we must understand "S is analytic for L" where "S"
| and "L" are variables.
|
| Alternatively we may, indeed, view the so-called rule as a conventional
| definition of a new simple symbol "analytic-for-L_0", which might better
| be written untendentiously as "K" so as not to seem to throw light on the
| interesting word "analytic". Obviously any number of classes K, M, N, etc.
| of statements of L_0 can be specified for various purposes or for no purpose;
| what does it mean to say that K, as against M, N, etc., is the class of the
| "analytic" statements of L_0?
|
| By saying what statements are analytic for L_0 we explain
| "analytic-for-L_0" but not "analytic", not "analytic for".
| We do not begin to explain the idiom "S is analytic for L"
| with variable "S" and "L", even if we are content to limit
| the range of "L" to the realm of artificial languages.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 33-34.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 19===
<pre>
| Two things here are all-important to assure oneself of
| 4. Semantical Rules (cont.)
| and to remember. The first is that a person is not
|
| absolutely an individual. His thoughts are what
| Actually we do know enough about the intended significance of
| he is "saying to himself", that is, is saying
| "analytic" to know that analytic statements are supposed to
| to that other self that is just coming into
| be true. Let us then turn to a second form of semantical
| life in the flow of time. When one reasons,
| rule, which says not that such and such statements are
| it is that critical self that one is trying
| analytic but simply that such and such statements are
| to persuade; and all thought whatsoever is a
| included among the truths. Such a rule is not subject
| sign, and is mostly of the nature of language.
| to the criticism of containing the un-understood word
| The second thing to remember is that the man's
| "analytic"; and we may grant for the sake of argument
| circle of society (however widely or narrowly
| that there is no difficulty over the broader term "true".
| this phrase may be understood), is a sort of
| A semantical rule of this second type, a rule of truth,
| loosely compacted person, in some respects of
| is not supposed to specify all the truths of the language;
| higher rank than the person of an individual
| it merely stipulates, recursively or otherwise, a certain
| organism. It is these two things alone that
| multitude of statements which, along with others unspecified,
| render it possible for you -- but only in
| are to count as true. Such a rule may be conceded to be quite
| the abstract, and in a Pickwickian sense --
| clear. Derivatively, afterward, analyticity can be demarcated
| to distinguish between absolute truth
| thus: a statement is analytic if it is (not merely true but)
| and what you do not doubt.
| true according to the semantical rule.
|
| Still there is really no progress. Instead of appealing to an unexplained
| word "analytic", we are now appealing to an unexplained phrase "semantical
| rule". Not every true statement which says that the statements of some
| class are true can count as a semantical rule -- otherwise 'all' truths
| would be "analytic" in the sense of being true according to semantical
| rules. Semantical rules are distinguishable, apparently, only by the
| fact of appearing on a page under the heading "Semantical Rules";
| and this heading is itself then meaningless.
|
|
| CSP, CP 5.421.
| We can say indeed that a statement is 'analytic-for-L_0' if and
| only if it is true according to such and such specifically appended
| "semantical rules", but then we find ourselves back at essentially the
| same case which was originally discussed: "S is analytic-for-L_0" if and
| only if ...". Once we seek to explain "S is analytic for L" generally for
| variable "L" (even allowing limitation of "L" to artificial languages),
| the explanation "true according to the semantical rules of L" is
| unavailing; for the relative term "semantical rule of" is as
| much in need of clarification, at least, as "analytic for".
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 34.
|
|
| Charles Sanders Peirce, "What Pragmatism Is",
| W.V. Quine,
|'The Monist', Volume 15, 1905, pages 161-181,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 20===
<pre>
| 4. Semantical Rules (cont.)
|
| It may be instructive to compare the notion of semantical rule with that
| of postulate. Relative to a given set of postulates, it is easy to say
| what a postulate is: it is a member of the set. Relative to a given
| set of semantical rules, it is equally easy to say what a semantical
| rule is. But given simply a notation, mathematical or otherwise,
| and indeed as thoroughly understood a notation as you please in
| point of the translations or truth conditions of its statements,
| who can say which of its true statements rank as postulates?
| Obviously the question is meaningless -- as meaningless as
| asking which points in Ohio are starting points. Any finite
| (or effectively specifiable infinite) selection of statements
| (preferably true ones, perhaps) is as much 'a' set of postulates
| as any other. The word "postulate" is significant only relative
| to an act of inquiry; we apply the word to a set of statements just
| in so far as we happen, for the year or the moment, to be thinking of
| those statements in relation to the statements which can be reached from
| them by some set of transformations to which we have seen fit to direct our
| attention. Now the notion of semantical rule is as sensible and meaningful as
| that of postulate, if conceived in a similarly relative spirit -- relative, this
| time, to one or another particular enterprise of schooling unconversant persons
| in sufficient conditions for truth of statements of some natural or artificial
| language L. But from this point of view no one signalization of a subclass
| of the truths of L is intrinsically more a semantical rule than another;
| and, if "analytic" means "true by semantical rules", no one truth of L
| is analytic to the exclusion of another.*
|
|*The foregoing paragraph was not part of the present essay as
| originally published. It was prompted by Martin [R.M. Martin,
| "On 'Analytic'", 'Philosophical Studies', vol. 3 (1952), 42-47],
| as was the end of Essay 7.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 35.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 21===
<pre>
| 4. Semantical Rules (concl.)
|
| It might conceivably be protested that an artificial language L
| (unlike a natural one) is a language in the ordinary sense 'plus'
| a set of explicit semantical rules -- the whole constituting, let
| us say, an ordered pair; and that the semantical rules of L then
| are specifiable simply as the second component of the pair L. But,
| by the same token and more simply, we might construe an artificial
at my present capacity to render it clear. Maybe it is time.
| language L outright as an ordered pair whose second component is the
| class of its analytic statements; and then the analytic statements of L
| become specifiable simply as the statements in the second component of L.
| Or better still, we might just stop tugging at our bootstraps altogether.
|
| Not all the explanations of analyticity known to Carnap
of looking for the author's own paraphrases and
| and his readers have been covered explicitly in the above
| considerations, but the extension to other forms is not hard
| to see. Just one additional factor should be mentioned which
| sometimes enters: sometimes the semantical rules are in effect
| rules of translation into ordinary language, in which case the
| analytic statements of the artificial language are in effect
| recognized as such from the analyticity of their specified
| translations in ordinary language. Here certainly there
| can be no thought of an illumination of the problem of
| analyticity from the side of the artificial language.
|
| From the point of view of the problem of analyticity the notion of an
| artificial language with semantical rules is a 'feu follet par excellence'.
| Semantical rules determining the analytic statements of an artificial language
| are of interest only in so far as we already understand the notion of analyticity;
| they are of no help in gaining this understanding.
the dialectic disluxations that will as a consequence result.
|
| Appeal to hypothetical languages of an artificially simple
| kind could conceivably be useful in clarifying analyticity,
| if the mental or behavioral or cultural factors relevant to
| analyticity -- whatever they may be -- were somehow sketched
| into the simplified model. But a model which takes analyticity
| merely as an irreducible character is unlikely to throw light on
| the problem of explicating analyticity.
|
| It is obvious that truth in general depends on both language and extralinguistic
| fact. The statement "Brutus killed Caesar" would be false if the world had
| been different in certain ways, but it would also be false if the word
| "killed" happened rather to have the sense of "begat". Thus one is
| tempted to suppose in general that the truth of a statement is
| somehow analyzable into a linguistic component and a factual
| component. Given this supposition, it next seems reasonable
| that in some statements the factual component should be null;
| and these are the analytic statements. But, for all its
| a priori reasonableness, a boundary between analytic
| and synthetic statements simply has not been drawn.
| That there is such a distinction to be drawn at
| all is an unempirical dogma of empiricists,
| a metaphysical article of faith.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 35-37.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 22===
<pre>
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism
|
| In the course of these somber reflections we have taken a dim view first
| of the notion of meaning, then of the notion of cognitive synonymy, and
The question is whether the interpretant preserves a semblance of the meaning.
| finally of the notion of analyticity. But what, it may be asked, of
| the verification theory of meaning? This phrase has established
| itself so firmly as a catchword of empiricism that we should be
| very unscientific indeed not to look beneath it for a possible
| key to the problem of meaning and the associated problems.
|
| The verification theory of meaning, which has been conspicuous in the
| literature from Peirce onward, is that the meaning of a statement is
| the method of empirically confirming or infirming it. An analytic
| statement is that limiting case which is confirmed no matter what.
|
| As urged in Section 1, we can as well pass over the question of
| meanings as entities and move straight to sameness of meaning,
| or synonymy. Then what the verification theory says is that
| statements are synonymous if and only if they are alike in
| point of method of empirical confirmation or infirmation.
|
| This is an account of cognitive synonymy not of linguistic forms generally,
| but of statements.* However, from the concept of synonymy of statements
| we could derive the concept of synonymy for other linguistic forms, by
| considerations somewhat similar to those at the end of Section 3.
| Assuming the notion of "word", indeed, we could explain any
| two forms as synonymous when the putting of one form for
| an occurrence of the other in any statement (apart from
| occurrences within "words") yields a synonymous statement.
| Finally, given the concept of synonymy thus for linguistic
| forms generally, we could define analyticity in terms of
| synonymy and logical truth as in Section 1. For that
| matter, we could define analyticity more simply in
| terms of just synonymy of statements together with
| logical truth; it is not necessary to appeal to
| synonymy of linguistic forms other than statements.
| For a statement may be described as analytic simply
| when it is synonymous with a logically true statement.
|
|*The doctrine can indeed be formulated with terms rather than statements as the
| units. Thus Lewis describes the meaning of a term as "'a criterion in mind',
| by reference to which one is able to apply or refuse to apply the expression
| in question in the case of presented, or imagined, things or situations"
| [C.I. Lewis, 'An Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation', Open Court, LaSalle,
| IL, 1946, p. 133]. -- For an instructive account of the vicissitudes of
| the verification theory of meaning, centered however on the question
| of meaning'fulness' rather than synonymy and analyticity, see Hempel.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 37-38.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 23===
<pre>
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
| So, if the verification theory can be accepted as an adequate account
| of statement synonymy, the notion of analyticity is saved after all.
| However, let us reflect. Statement synonymy is said to be likeness
| of method of empirical confirmation or infirmation. Just what are
| these methods which are to be compared for likeness? What, in
| other words, is the nature of the relation between a statement
| and the experiences which contribute to or detract from its
| confirmation?
|
| The most naive view of the relation is that it is one of direct report.
| This is 'radical reductionism'. Every meaningful statement is held to be
| translatable into a statement (true or false) about immediate experience.
| Radical reductionism, in one form or another, well antedates the verification
| theory of meaning explicitly so called. Thus Locke and Hume held that every
| idea must either originate directly in sense experience or else be compounded
| of ideas thus originating; and taking a hint from Tooke we might rephrase
| this doctrine in semantical jargon by saying that a term, to be significant
| at all, must be either a name of a sense datum or a compound of such names or
| an abbreviation of such a compound. So stated, the doctrine remains ambiguous
| as between sense data as sensory events and sense data as sensory qualities;
| and it remains vague as to the admissible ways of compounding. Moreover, the
| doctrine is unnecessarily and intolerably restrictive in the term-by-term
| critique which it imposes. More reasonably, and without yet exceeding
| the limits of what I have called radical reductionism, we may take full
| statements as our significant units -- thus demanding that our statements
| as wholes be translatable into sense-datum language, but not that they be
| translatable term by term.
|
| This emendation would unquestionably have been welcome to Locke and Hume
| and Tooke, but historically it had to await an important reorientation in
| semantics -- the reorientation whereby the primary vehicle of meaning came
| to be seen no longer in the term but in the statement. This reorientation,
| seen in Bentham and Frege, underlies Russell's concept of incomplete symbols
| defined in use; also it is implicit in the verification theory of meaning,
| since the objects of verification are statements.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 38-39.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 24===
<pre>
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
| Radical reductionism, conceived now with statements as units,
| set itself the task of specifying a sense-datum language and
| showing how to translate the rest of significant discourse,
| statement by statement, into it. Carnap embarked on this
| project in the 'Aufbau'.
|
| The language which Carnap adopted as his starting point was not
| a sense-datum language in the narrowest conceivable sense, for
| it included also the notations of logic, up through higher set
| theory. In effect it included the whole language of pure
| mathematics. The ontology implicit in it (that is, the
| range of values of its variables) embraced not only
| sensory events but classes, classes of classes, and
| so on. Empiricists there are who would boggle at
| such prodigality. Carnap's starting point is
| very parsimonious, however, in its extralogical
| or sensory part. In a series of constructions in
| which he exploits the resources of modern logic with
| much ingenuity, Carnap succeeds in defining a wide array
| of important additional sensory concepts which, but for his
| constructions, one would not have dreamed were definable on
| so slender a basis. He was the first empiricist who, not
| content with asserting the reducibility of science to
| terms of immediate experience, took serious steps
| toward carrying out the reduction.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", p. 39.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 25===
<pre>
| But we think each one of our beliefs to be true,
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
|
| CSP, 'Collected Papers', CP 5.375
| If Carnap's starting point is satisfactory,
| still his constructions were, as he himself
| stressed, only a fragment of the full program.
| The construction of even the simplest statements
| But we can cover any distance we can run at a pace faster than a walk.
| about the physical world was left in a sketchy state.
| Carnap's suggestions on this subject were, despite their
| sketchiness, very suggestive. He explained spatio-temporal
| point-instants as quadruples of real numbers and envisaged
| Any distance we can run is a distance we can cover faster than a walk.
| assignment of sense qualities to point-instants according
| to certain canons. Roughly summarized, the plan was that
The tautology is one that occurs at the level of the two predicates:
| qualities should be assigned to point-instants in such a
"runnable" and "coverable at a pace faster than a walk". It would
| way as to achieve the laziest world compatible with our
| experience. The principle of least action was to be
| our guide in constructing a world from experience.
|
| Carnap did not seem to recognize, however, that his treatment
| of physical objects fell short of reduction not merely through
| sketchiness, but in principle. Statements of the form "Quality
| q is at point-instant x;y;z;t" were, according to his canons,
| to be apportioned truth vakues in such a way as to maximize
| and minimize certain over-all features, and with growth of
| experience the truth values were to be progressively revised
| in the same spirit. I think that this is a good schematization
| (deliberately oversimplified, to be sure) of what science really
| does; but it provides no indication, not even the sketchiest, of
| how a statement of the form "Quality q is at x;y;z;t" could ever
| be translated into Carnap's initial language of sense data and
| logic. The connective "is at" remains an added undefined
| connective; the canons counsel us in its use but not
| in its elimination.
|
| Carnap seems to have appreciated this point afterward;
| for in his later writings he abandoned all notion of
| the translatability of statements about the physical
| world into statements about immediate experience.
| Reductionism in its radical form has long since
| ceased to figure in Carnap's philosophy.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 39-40.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 26===
<pre>
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (cont.)
|
| But the dogma of reductionism has, in a subtler and more tenuous form,
| continued to influence the thought of empiricists. The notion lingers
| that to each statement, or each synthetic statement, there is associated
| a unique range of possible sensory events such that the occurrence of any
| of them would add to the likelihood of truth of the statement, and that
| there is associated also another unique range of possible sensory events
| whose occurrence would detract from that likelihood. This notion is of
| course implicit in the verification theory of meaning.
|
| The dogma of reductionism survives in the supposition that each statement,
| taken in isolation from its fellows, can admit of confirmation or infirmation
| at all. My countersuggestion, issuing essentially from Carnap's doctrine of
| the physical world in the 'Aufbau', is that our statements about the external
| world face the tribunal of sense experience not individually but only as a
| corporate body.*
|
|*This doctrine was well argued by Duhem [Pierre Duhem, 'La Theorie Physique:
| Son Object et Sa Structure', Paris, 1906, pp. 303-328]. Or see Lowinger
| Armand Lowinger, 'The Methodology of Pierre Duhem', Columbia University
| Press, New York, NY, 1941, pp. 132-140].
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 40-41.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 27===
<pre>
| 5. The Verification Theory and Reductionism (concl.)
|
| The dogma of reductionism, even in its attenuated form, is intimately
| connected with the other dogma -- that there is a cleavage between
| the analytic and the synthetic. We have found ourselves led,
| indeed, from the latter problem to the former through the
| verification theory of meaning. More directly, the one
| dogma clearly supports the other in this way: as long
| as it is taken to be significant in general to speak
| of the confirmation and infirmation of a statement,
| it seems significant to speak also of a limiting
| kind of statement which is vacuously confirmed,
| 'ipso facto', come what may; and such
| a statement is analytic.
|
| The two dogmas are, indeed, at root identical. We lately reflected
| that in general the truth of statements does obviously depend both
| upon language and upon extralinguistic fact; and we noted that
| this obvious circumstance carries in its train, not logically
| but all too naturally, a feeling that the truth of a statement
| is somehow analyzable into a linguistic component and a factual
| component. The factual component must, if we are empiricists,
| boil down to a range of confirmatory experiences. In the
| extreme case where the linguistic component is all that
| matters, a true statement is analytic. But I hope we are
| now impressed with how stubbornly the distinction between
| analytic and synthetic has resisted any straightforward
| drawing. I am impressed also, apart from prefabricated
| examples of black and white balls in an urn, with how
| baffling the problem has always been of arriving at
| any explicit theory of the empirical confirmation of
| a synthetic statement. My present suggestion is that
| it is nonsense, and the root of much nonsense, to speak
| of a linguistic component and a factual component in the
| truth of any individual statement. Taken collectively,
| science has its double dependence upon language and
| experience; but this duality is not significantly
| traceable into the statements of science taken
| one by one.
|
| The idea of defining a symbol in use was, as remarked, an advance
| over the impossible term-by-term empiricism of Locke and Hume.
| The statement, rather than the term, came with Bentham to be
| recognized as the unit accountable to an empiricist critique.
| But what I am now urging is that even in taking the statement
| as unit we have drawn our grid too finely. The unit of empirical
| significance is the whole of science.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 41-42.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
Note 13
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 28===
<pre>
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas
|
| The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most
| casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of
| atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made
| fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to
| change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose
in this life is merely the insufficiency of words and their author.
| boundary conditions are experience. A conflict with experience at
| the periphery occasions readjustments in the interior of the field.
| Truth values have to be redistributed over some of our statements.
| Re-evaluation of some statements entails re-evaluation of others,
| because of their logical interconnections -- the logical laws
| being in turn simply certain further statements of the system,
| certain further elements of the field. Having re-evaluated one
| statement we must re-evaluate some others, which may be statements
| logically connected with the first or may be the statements of logical
| connections themselves. But the total field is so underdetermined by
| its boundary conditions, experience, that there is much latitude of
| choice as to what statements to re-evaluate in the light of any
| single contrary experience. No particular experiences are
| linked with any particular statements in the interior of
| the field, except indirectly through considerations
| of equilibrium affecting the field as a whole.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 42-43.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 29===
<pre>
| Belief and doubt may be conceived to be distinguished only in degree.
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas (cont.)
|
|
| CSP, CE 3, pages 21.
| If this view is right, it is misleading to speak of the empirical content of
| an individual statement -- especially if it is a statement at all remote from
| the experiential periphery of the field. Furthermore it becomes folly to seek
| a boundary between synthetic statements, which hold contingently on experience,
| and analytic statements, which hold come what may. Any statement can be held
| true come what may, if we make drastic enough adjustments elsewhere in the
| system. Even a statement very close to the periphery can be held true in
| the face of recalcitrant experience by pleading hallucination or by amending
| certain statements of the kind called logical laws. Conversely, by the same
| token, no statement is immune to revision. Revision even of the logical law
| of the excluded middle has been proposed as a means of simplifying quantum
| mechanics; and what difference is there in principle between such a shift
| and the shift whereby Kepler superseded Ptolemy, or Einstein Newton, or
| Darwin Aristotle?
|
| For vividness I have been speaking in terms of varying distances
| from a sensory periphery. Let me try now to clarify this notion
| without metaphor. Certain statements, though 'about' physical
| objects and not sense experience, seem peculiarly germane to
| sense experience -- and in a selective way: some statements to
| some experiences, others to others. Such statements, especially
| germane to particular experiences, I picture as near the periphery.
| But in this relation of "germaneness" I envisage nothing more than a
| loose association reflecting the relative likelihood, in practice, of
| our choosing one statement rather than another for revision in the event
| of recalcitrant experience. For example, we can imagine recalcitrant
| experiences to which we would surely be inclined to accommodate our
| system by re-evaluating just the statement that there are brick
| houses on Elm Street, together with related statements on the
| same topic. We can imagine other recalcitrant experiences
| to which we would be inclined to accommodate our system by
| re-evaluating just the statement that there are no centaurs,
| along with kindred statemnts. A recalcitrant experience can,
| I have urged, be accommodated by any of various alternative
| re-evaluations in various alternative quarters of the total
| system; but, in the cases which we are now imagining, our
| natural tendency to disturb the total system as little as
| possible would lead us to focus our revisions upon these
| specific statements concerning brick houses or centaurs.
| These statements are felt, therefore, to have a sharper
| empirical reference than highly theoretical statements
| of physics or logic or ontology. The latter statements
| may be thought of as relatively centrally located within
| the total network, meaning merely that little preferential
| connection with any particular sense data obtrudes itself.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 43-44.
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, MS 182, 1872, "Chapter 1 (Enlarged Abstract)", pages 20-21 in:
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
</pre>
==VOOP. Varieties Of Ontology Projects==
===TDOE. Note 30===
<pre>
<pre>
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas (cont.)
|
| As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as
| a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past
| experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation
| as convenient intermediaries -- not by definition in terms of experience,
| but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the
| gods of Homer. For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical
| objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error
| to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the
| physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind.
| Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits.
| The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most
| in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device
| for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.
|
| Positing does not stop with macroscopic physical objects.
| Objects at the atomic level are posited to make the laws of
| macroscopic objects, and ultimately the laws of experience,
| simpler and more manageable; and we need not expect or demand
| full definition of atomic and subatomic entities in terms of
| macroscopic ones, any more than definition of macroscopic things
| in terms of sense data. Science is a continuation of common sense,
| and it continues the common-sense expedient of swelling ontology to
| simplify theory.
|
| Physical objects, small and large, are not the only posits.
| Forces are another example; and indeed we are told nowadays that
| the boundary between energy and matter is obsolete. Moreover, the
| abstract entities which are the substance of mathematics -- ultimately
| classes and classes of classes and so on up -- are another posit in the
| same spirit. Epistemologically these are myths on the same footing with
| physical objects and gods, neither better nor worse except for differences
| in the degree to which they expedite our dealings with sense experiences.
|
| The over-all algebra of rational and irrational numbers is
| underdetermined by the algebra of rational numbers, but is
| smoother and more convenient; and it includes the algebra
| of rational numbers as a jagged or gerrymandered part.
| Total science, mathematical and natural and human,
| is similarly but more extremely underdetermined
| by experience. The edge of the system must be
| kept squared with experience; the rest, with
| all its elaborate myths or fictions, has as
| its objective the simplicty of laws.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 44-45.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
===TDOE. Note 31===
<pre>
| 6. Empiricism without the Dogmas (concl.)
|
the adequacy of proposals at each stage of development,
| Ontological questions, under this view, are on a par with questions
| of natural science. Consider the question whether to countenance
for a number of ontology projects that fall within the
| classes as entities. This, as I have argued elsewhere, is the
| question whether to quantify with respect to variables which
| take classes as values. Now Carnap [*] has maintained that
| this is a question not of matters of fact but of choosing
| a convenient language form, a convenient conceptual scheme
| or framework for science. With this I agree, but only on the
| proviso that the same be conceded regarding scientific hypotheses
| generally. Carnap ([*], p. 32n) has recognized that he is able to
| preserve a double standard for ontological questions and scientific
| hypotheses only by assuming an absolute distinction between the
| analytic and the synthetic; and I need not say again that
| this is a distinction which I reject.
|
| The issue over there being classes seems more a question of convenient
| conceptual scheme; the issue over there being centaurs, or brick houses
| on Elm street, seems more a question of fact. But I have been urging that
| this difference is only one of degree, and that it turns upon our vaguely
| pragmatic inclination to adjust one strand of the fabric of science rather
| than another in accommodating some particular recalcitrant experience.
| Conservatism figures in such choices, and so does the quest for
| simplicity.
|
| Carnap, Lewis, and others take a pragmatic stand on the question of choosing
| between language forms, scientific frameworks; but their pragmatism leaves
| off at the imagined boundary between the analytic and the synthetic. In
| repudiating such a boundary I espouse a more thorough pragmatism. Each
| man is given a scientific heritage plus a continuing barrage of sensory
| stimulation; and the considerations which guide him in warping his
| scientific heritage to fit his continuing sensory promptings are,
| where rational, pragmatic.
|
|*Rudolf Carnap, "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology",
|'Revue Internationale de Philosphie', vol. 4 (1950), pp. 20-40.
| Reprinted in Leonard Linsky (ed.), 'Semantics and the Philosophy
| of Language', University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1952.
|
| Quine, "Two Dogmas", pp. 45-46.
|
| W.V. Quine,
|"Two Dogmas of Empiricism", 'Philosophical Review', January 1951.
| Reprinted as pages 20-46 in 'From a Logical Point of View',
| 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
</pre>
==VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories==
===VOLS. Note 1===
<pre>
| These are the forms of time,
| which imitates eternity and
| revolves according to a law
| of number.
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", 38 A,
| Benjamin Jowett (trans.)
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 2===
<pre>
| Now first of all we must, in my judgement, make the following distinction.
| What is that which is Existent always and has no Becoming? And what is
| that which is Becoming always and never is Existent? Now the one of
| these is apprehensible by thought with the aid of reasoning, since
| it is ever uniformly existent; whereas the other is an object of
of ontology projects would of course be a major
| opinion with the aid of unreasoning sensation, since it becomes and
| perishes and is never really existent. Again, everything which becomes
| must of necessity become owing to some Cause; for without a cause it is
| impossible for anything to attain becoming. But when the artificer of any
| object, in forming its shape and quality, keeps his gaze fixed on that which
| is uniform, using a model of this kind, that object, executed in this way,
| must of necessity be beautiful; but whenever he gazes at that which
| has come into existence and uses a created model, the object thus
| executed is not beautiful. Now the whole Heaven, or Cosmos, or
| if there is any other name which it specially prefers, by that
| let us call it -- so, be its name what it may, we must first
| investigate concerning it that primary question which has to be
| investigated at the outset in every case -- namely, whether it has
| existed always, having no beginning of generation, or whether it has
| come into existence, having begun from some beginning. It has come into
| existence; for it is visible and tangible and possessed of a body; and all
| such things are sensible, and things sensible, being apprehensible by opinion
| with the aid of sensation, come into existence, as we saw, and are generated.
| And that which has come into existence must necessarily, as we say, have
| come into existence by reason of some Cause. Now to discover the
| Maker and Father of this Universe were a task indeed; and
| having discovered Him, to declare Him unto all men were
| a thing impossible. However, let us return and inquire
| further concerning the Cosmos -- after which of the Models
| ['paradeigmaton'] did its Architect construct it? Was it after
| that which is self-identical and uniform, or after that which has
| come into existence? Now if so be that this Cosmos is beautiful and
| its Constructor good, it is plain that he fixed his gaze on the Eternal;
| but if otherwise (which is an impious supposition), his gaze was on that
| which has come into existence. But it is clear to everyone that his gaze
| was on the Eternal; for the Cosmos is the fairest of all that has come
| into existence, and He is the best of all the Causes. So having
| in this wise come into existence, it has been constructed
| after the pattern of that which is apprehensible by
| reason and thought and is self-identical.
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", 27D-29A.
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", R.G. Bury (trans.),
|'Plato, Volume 9', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1929.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 3===
<pre>
| Again, if these premisses be granted, it is wholly necessary that this Cosmos
| should be a Copy ['eikona'] of something. Now in regard to every matter it is
| most important to begin at the natural beginning. Accordingly, in dealing with
| a copy and its model, we must affirm that the accounts given will themselves be
| akin to the diverse objects which they serve to explain; those which deal with
| what is abiding and firm and discernible by the aid of thought will be abiding
| and unshakable; and in so far as it is possible and fitting for statements to
| be irrefutable and invincible, they must in no wise fall short thereof; whereas
| the accounts of that which is copied after the likeness of that Model, and is
| itself a likeness, will be analogous thereto and possess likelihood; for as
| Being is to Becoming, so is Truth to Belief. Wherefore, Socrates, if in our
| treatment of a great host of matters regarding the Gods and the generation of
| the Universe we prove unable to give accounts that are always in all respects
| self-consistent and perfectly exact, be not thou surprised; rather we should
| be content if we can furnish accounts that are inferior to none in likelihood,
| remembering that both I who speak and you who judge are but human creatures,
| so that it becomes us to accept the likely account of these matters and
| forbear to search beyond it.
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", 29B-29D.
|
| Plato, "Timaeus", R.G. Bury (trans.),
|'Plato, Volume 9', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1929.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 4===
<pre>
| Many likelihoods informed me of this before,
| which hung so tott'ring in the balance that
| I could neither believe nor misdoubt.
|
| 'All's Well That Ends Well', 1.3.119-121
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 5===
<pre>
| We have Reduction [abduction, Greek 'apagoge'] (1) when it is obvious
| that the first term applies to the middle, but that the middle applies
| to the last term is not obvious, yet nevertheless is more probable or
| not less probable than the conclusion; or (2) if there are not many
| intermediate terms between the last and the middle; for in all such
| cases the effect is to bring us nearer to knowledge.
|
| (1) E.g., let A stand for "that which can be taught", B for "knowledge",
| and C for "morality". Then that knowledge can be taught is evident;
| but whether virtue is knowledge is not clear. Then if BC is not less
| probable or is more probable than AC, we have reduction; for we are
| nearer to knowledge for having introduced an additional term, whereas
| before we had no knowledge that AC is true.
|
| (2) Or again we have reduction if there are not many intermediate terms
| between B and C; for in this case too we are brought nearer to knowledge.
| E.g., suppose that D is "to square", E "rectilinear figure" and F "circle".
| Assuming that between E and F there is only one intermediate term -- that the
| circle becomes equal to a rectilinear figure by means of lunules -- we should
| approximate to knowledge. When, however, BC is not more probable than AC, or
| there are several intermediate terms, I do not use the expression "reduction";
| nor when the proposition BC is immediate; for such a statement implies knowledge.
|
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics", 2.25.
|
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics",
| Hugh Tredennick (trans.), in:
|'Aristotle, Volume 1', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1938, 1983.
</pre>
</pre>
==VORE. Varieties Of Recalcitrant Experience==
===VOLS. Note 6===
<pre>
<pre>
| A probability [Greek 'eikos'] is not the same as a sign ['semeion'].
| The former is a generally accepted premiss; for that which people
| know to happen or not to happen, or to be or not to be, usually
| in a particular way, is a probability: e.g., that the envious
| Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was
| are malevolent or that those who are loved are affectionate.
| a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that
| A sign, however, means a demonstrative premiss which
| was down along the road met a nicens little boy named
| is necessary or generally accepted. That which
| baby tuckoo ....
| coexists with something else, or before or
| after whose happening something else has
| happened, is a sign of that something's
| having happened or being.
|
|
| His father told him that story: his father looked at him
| An enthymeme is a syllogism from probabilities or signs;
| through a glass: he had a hairy face.
| and a sign can be taken in three ways -- in just as many ways
| as there are of taking the middle term in the several figures ...
|
|
| He was baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where
| We must either classify signs in this way, and regard their middle term as
| Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt.
| an index ['tekmerion'] (for the name "index" is given to that which causes
| us to know, and the middle term is especially of this nature), or describe
| the arguments drawn from the extremes as "signs", and that which is drawn
| from the middle as an "index". For the conclusion which is reached through
| the first figure is most generally accepted and most true.
|
|
| O, the wild rose blossoms
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics", 2.27.
|
|
| He sang that song. That was his song.
| Aristotle, "Prior Analytics",
|
| Hugh Tredennick (trans.), in:
|'Aristotle, Volume 1', G.P. Goold (ed.),
|
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1938, 1983.
|
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 7===
<pre>
| It was the hour for sums. Father Arnall wrote a hard sum on the
| Rhetoric is a counterpart [Greek 'antistrophos'] of Dialectic;
| board and then said:
| for both have to do with matters that are in a manner within the
| cognizance of all men and not confined to any special science.
| Hence all men in a manner have a share of both; for all, up to
| a certain point, endeavour to criticize or uphold an argument,
| to defend themselves or to accuse. Now, the majority of people
| do this either at random or with a familiarity arising from habit.
| But since both these ways are possible, it is clear that matters
| can be reduced to a system, for it is possible to examine the
| reason why some attain their end by familiarity and others by
| chance; and such an examination all would at once admit to be
| the function of an art ['techne']. (1-2)
|
|
| -- Now then, who will win? Go ahead, York! Go ahead, Lancaster!
| Now, previous compilers of "Arts" of Rhetoric have provided us with
|
| only a small portion of this art, for proofs are the only things in
| it that come within the province of art; everything else is merely
| The little silk badge with the white rose on it that was pinned on the
| an accessory. And yet they say nothing about enthymemes which are
| breast of his jacket began to flutter. He was no good at sums but he
| the body of proof, but chiefly devote their attention to matters
| tried his best so that York might not lose. Father Arnall's face looked
| outside the subject; for the arousing of prejudice, compassion,
| very black but he was not in a wax: he was laughing. Then Jack Lawton
| anger, and similar emotions has no connexion with the matter in
| hand, but is directed only to the dicast. (3-4)
|
|
| -- Right. Bravo Lancaster! The red rose wins. Come on now, York!
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.1.1-4.
|
|
| Jack Lawton looked over from his side. The little silk badge with
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| on. Stephen felt his own face red too, thinking of all the bets about
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
| the next sum and heard Father Arnall's voice. Then all his eagerness
|
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 8===
<pre>
| The equation on the page of his scribbler began to spread out a widening tail,
| It is obvious, therefore, that a system arranged according to the rules of art
| eyed and starred like a peacock's; and, when the eyes and stars of its indices
| is only concerned with proofs; that proof ['pistis'] is a sort of demonstration
| had been eliminated, began slowly to fold itself together again. The indices
| ['apodeixis'], since we are most strongly convinced when we suppose anything to
| appearing and disappearing were eyes opening and closing; the eyes opening
| have been demonstrated; that rhetorical demonstration is an enthymeme, which,
| and closing were stars being born and being quenched. The vast cycle
| generally speaking, is the strongest of rhetorical proofs; and lastly, that
| of starry life bore his weary mind outward to its verge and inward
| the enthymeme is a kind of syllogism. Now, as it is the function of Dialectic
| to its centre, a distant music accompanying him outward and inward.
| as a whole, or one of its parts, to consider every kind of syllogism in a similar
| What music? The music came nearer and he recalled the words, the
| manner, it is clear that he who is most capable of examining the matter and forms
| words of Shelley's fragment upon the moon wandering companionless,
| of a syllogism will be in the highest degree a master of rhetorical argument, if
| pale for weariness. The stars began to crumble and a cloud of
| to this he adds a knowledge of the subjects with which enthymemes deal and the
| fine star-dust fell through space.
| differences between them and logical syllogisms. For, in fact, the true and that
| which resembles it come under the purview of the same faculty, and at the same time
| men have a sufficient natural capacity for the truth and indeed in most cases attain
| to it; wherefore one who divines well ['stochastikos echein'] in regard to the truth
| will also be able to divine well in regard to probabilities ['endoxa'].
|
|
| The dull light fell more faintly upon the page whereon another equation
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.1.11.
|
|
| Joyce, 'Portrait', p. 97.
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
|
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man',
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| Bantam, New York, NY, 1992. Originally published 1916.
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 9===
<pre>
| The formula which he wrote obediently on the sheet of paper, the coiling and
| It is thus evident that Rhetoric does not deal with any one definite class
| uncoiling calculations of the professor, the spectrelike symbols of force and
| of subjects, but, like Dialectic, [is of general application -- Trans.];
| velocity fascinated and jaded Stephen's mind. He had heard some say that the
| also, that it is useful; and further, that its function is not so much
| old professor was an atheist freemason. Oh, the grey dull day! It seemed a
| to persuade, as to find out in each case the existing means of persuasion.
| limbo of painless patient consciousness through which souls of mathematicians
| The same holds good in respect to all the other arts. For instance, it
| might wander, projecting long slender fabrics from plane to plane of ever rarer
| is not the function of medicine to restore a patient to health, but only
| and paler twilight, radiating swift eddies to the last verges of a universe ever
| to promote this end as far as possible; for even those whose recovery is
| vaster, farther and more impalpable.
| impossible may be properly treated. It is further evident that it belongs
| to Rhetoric to discover the real and apparent means of persuasion, just
| as it belongs to Dialectic to discover the real and apparent syllogism.
| For what makes the sophist is not the faculty but the moral purpose.
| But there is a difference: in Rhetoric, one who acts in accordance with
| sound argument, and one who acts in accordance with moral purpose, are
| both called rhetoricians; but in Dialectic it is the moral purpose that
| makes the sophist, the dialectician being one whose arguments rest, not
| on moral purpose but on the faculty.
|
|
| -- So we must distinguish between elliptical and ellipsoidal.
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.1.14.
|
|
| On a cloth untrue
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| With a twisted cue
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| And elliptical billiard balls.
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 10===
<pre>
| Rhetoric then may be defined as the faculty of discovering the possible means
| of persuasion in reference to any subject whatever. This is the function of
| no other of the arts, each of which is able to instruct and persuade in its
| own special subject; thus, medicine deals with health and sickness, geometry
| with the properties of magnitudes, arithmetic with number, and similarly with
| all the other arts and sciences. But Rhetoric, so to say, appears to be able
| to discover the means of persuasion in reference to any given subject. That is
| why we say that as an art its rules are not applied to any particular definite
| class of things.
|
| As for proofs, some are inartificial, others artificial. By the former
| I understand all those which have not been furnished by ourselves but were
| already in existence, such as witnesses, tortures, contracts, and the like;
| by the latter, all that can be constructed by system and by our own efforts.
| Thus we have only to make use of the former, whereas we must invent the latter.
|
|
| -- He means a ball having the form of the ellipsoid
| Now the proofs furnished by the speech are of three kinds.
| of the principal axes of which I spoke a moment ago. --
| The first depends upon the moral character of the speaker,
| the second upon putting the hearer into a certain frame
| of mind, the third upon the speech itself, in so far as
| it proves or seems to prove.
|
|
| Joyce, 'Portrait', pp. 185-186.
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.1-3.
|
|
| James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man',
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| Bantam, New York, NY, 1992. Originally published 1916.
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 11===
<pre>
| I was, at that time, in Germany, whither the wars,
| But for purposes of demonstration, real or apparent, just as Dialectic possesses
| which have not yet finished there, had called me,
| two modes of argument, induction and the syllogism, real or apparent, the same is
| and as I was returning from the coronation of the
| the case in Rhetoric; for the example is induction, and the enthymeme a syllogism,
| Emperor to join the army, the onset of winter held
| and the apparent enthymeme an apparent syllogism. Accordingly I call an enthymeme
| me up in quarters in which, finding no company to
| a rhetorical syllogism, and an example rhetorical induction. Now all orators produce
| distract me, and having, fortunately, no cares or
| belief by employing as proofs either examples or enthymemes and nothing else; so that
| passions to disturb me, I spent the whole day shut
| if, generally speaking, it is necessary to prove any fact whatever either by syllogism
| or by induction -- and that this is so is clear from the 'Analytics' -- each of the
| had complete leisure to meditate on my own thoughts.
| two former must be identical with each of the two latter. The difference between
| example and enthymeme is evident from the 'Topics', where, in discussing syllogism
| and induction, it has previously been said that the proof from a number of particular
| cases that such is the rule, is called in Dialectic induction, in Rhetoric example;
| but when, certain things being posited, something different results by reason of
| them, alongside of them, from their being true, either universally or in most
| cases, such a conclusion in Dialectic is called a syllogism, in Rhetoric an
| enthymeme.
|
|
| Descartes, DOM, p. 35.
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.8-9.
|
|
| Rene Descartes, "Discourse on the Method
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| pp. 25-91 in 'Discourse on Method and
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
| the Meditations', translated with an
| Penguin, London, UK, 1968.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 12===
<pre>
| A very young child may always be observed to watch its own
| The function ['ergon'] of Rhetoric, then, is to deal with things about
| body with great attention. There is every reason why this
| which we deliberate, but for which we have no systematic rules; and in
| should be so, for from the child's point of view this body
| the presence of such hearers as are unable to take a general view of many
| is the most important thing in the universe. Only what it
| stages, or to follow a lengthy chain of argument. But we only deliberate
| touches has any actual and present feeling; only what it
| about things which seem to admit of issuing in two ways; as for those things
| faces has any actual color; only what is on its tongue
| which cannot in the past, present, or future be otherwise, no one deliberates
| has any actual taste.
| about them, if he supposes that they are such; for nothing would be gained
| by it. Now, it is possible to draw conclusions and inferences partly from
| what has been previously demonstrated syllogistically, partly from what
| has not, which however needs demonstration, because it is not probable.
| The first of these methods is necessarily difficult to follow owing to
| its length, for the judge is supposed to be a simple person; the second
| will obtain little credence, because it does not depend upon what is either
| admitted of probable. The necessary result then is that the enthymeme and
| the example are concerned with things which may, generally speaking, be other
| than they are, the example being a kind of induction and the enthymeme a kind
| of syllogism, and deduced from few premisses, often from fewer than the regular
| syllogism; for if any one of these is well known, there is no need to mention it,
| for the hearer can add it himself. For instance, to prove that Dorieus was the
| victor in a contest at which the prize was a crown, it is enough to say that
| he won a victory at the Olympic games; there is no need to add that the
| prize at the Olympic games is a crown, for everybody knows it.
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.229.
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.12-13.
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 13===
<pre>
| No one questions that, when a sound is heard by a child, he thinks,
| But since few of the propositions of the rhetorical syllogism
| not of himself as hearing, but of the bell or other object as sounding.
| are necessary ['anagkaion'], for most of the things which we
| How when he wills to move a table? Does he then think of himself as
| judge and examine can be other than they are, human actions,
| desiring, or only of the table as fit to be moved? That he has the
| which are the subject of our deliberation and examination,
| latter thought, is beyond question; that he has the former, must,
| being all of such a character and, generally speaking, none of
| until the existence of an intuitive self-consciousness is proved,
| them necessary; since, further, facts which only generally happen
| remain an arbitrary and baseless supposition. There is no good
| or are merely possible can only be demonstrated by other facts of
| reason for thinking that he is less ignorant of his own peculiar
| the same kind, and necessary facts by necessary propositions (and
| condition than the angry adult who denies that he is in a passion.
| that this is so is clear from the 'Analytics'), it is evident that
| the materials from which enthymemes are derived will be sometimes
| necessary, but for the most part only generally true; and these
| materials being probabilities and signs, it follows that these
| two elements must correspond to these two kinds of propositions,
| each to each. For that which is probable is that which generally
| happens, not however unreservedly, as some define it, but that
| which is concerned with things that may be other than they are,
| being so related to that in regard to which it is probable as
| the universal to the particular. As to signs, some are related
| as the particular to the universal, others as the universal to
| the particular. Necessary signs are called 'tekmeria'; those
| which are not necessary have no distinguishing name. I call
| those necessary signs from which a logical syllogism can be
| constructed, wherefore such a sign is called 'tekmerion';
| for when people think that their arguments are irrefutable,
| they think that they are bringing forward a 'tekmerion',
| something as it were proved and concluded; for in
| the old language 'tekmar' and 'peras' have the
| same meaning (limit, conclusion).
|
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.14-17.
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.230.
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
|
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 14===
<pre>
| The child, however, must soon discover by observation
| Among signs, some are related as the particular to the universal;
| that things which are thus fit to be changed are apt
| for instance, if one were to say that all wise men are just, because
| actually to undergo this change, after a contact with
| Socrates was both wise and just. Now this is a sign, but even though
| that peculiarly important body called Willy or Johnny.
| the particular statement is true, it can be refuted, because it cannot
| This consideration makes this body still more important
| be reduced to syllogistic form. But if one were to say that it is a sign
| and central, since it establishes a connection between
| that a man is ill, because he has a fever, or that a woman has had a child
| the fitness of a thing to be changed and a tendency in
| because she has milk, this is a necessary sign. This alone among signs is
| this body to touch it before it is changed.
| a 'tekmerion'; for only in this case, if the fact is true, is the argument
| irrefutable. Other signs are related as the universal to the particular,
| for instance, if one were to say that it is a sign that this man has a fever,
| because he breathes hard; but even if the fact be true, this argument also
| can be refuted, for it is possible for a man to breathe hard without having
| a fever. We have now explained the meaning of probable, sign, and necessary
| sign, and the difference between them; in the 'Analytics' we have defined
| them more clearly and stated why some of them can be converted into logical
| syllogisms, while others cannot.
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.231.
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.18
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 15===
<pre>
| The child learns to understand the language; that is to say, a connection
| We have now stated the materials of proofs which are thought to be demonstrative.
| between certain sounds and certain facts becomes established in his mind.
| But a very great difference between enthymemes has escaped the notice of nearly
| He has previously noticed the connection between these sounds and the
| every one, although it also exists in the dialectical method of syllogisms.
| motions of the lips of bodies somewhat similar to the central one,
| For some of them belong to Rhetoric, some syllogisms only to Dialectic,
| and has tried the experiment of putting his hand on those lips
| and others to other arts and faculties, some already existing and
| and has found the sound in that case to be smothered. He thus
| others not yet established. Hence its is that this escapes
| connects that language with bodies somewhat similar to the
| the notice of the speakers, and the more they specialize
| central one. By efforts, so unenergetic that they should
| in a subject, the more they transgress the limits of
| be called rather instinctive, perhaps, than tentative, he
| Rhetoric and Dialectic. But this will be clearer
| learns to produce those sounds. So he begins to converse.
| if stated at greater length.
|
| I mean by dialectical and rhetorical syllogisms those which are concerned with what
| we call "topics", which may be applied alike to Law, Physics, Politics, and many
| other sciences that differ in kind, such as the topic of the more or less, which
| will furnish syllogisms and enthymemes equally well for Law, Physics, or any
| other science whatever, although these subjects differ in kind. Specific
| topics on the other hand are derived from propositions which are peculiar
| to each species or genus of things; there are, for example, propositions
| about Physics which can furnish neither enthymemes nor syllogisms about
| Ethics, and there are propositions concerned with Ethics which will be
| useless for furnishing conclusions about Physics; and the same holds
| good in all cases. The first kind of topics will not make a man
| practically wise about any particular class of things, because
| they do not deal with any particular subject matter; but as
| to the specific topics, the happier a man is in his choice
| of propositions, the more he will unconsciously produce
| a science quite different from Dialectic and Rhetoric.
| For if once he hits upon first principles, it will
| no longer be Dialectic or Rhetoric, but that
| science whose principles he has arrived at.
| Most enthymemes are constructed from
| these special topics, which are
| called particular and special,
| fewer from those that are
| common or universal.
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.232.
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.20-22
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 16===
<pre>
| It must be about this time that he begins to find that what
| We have said that example ['paradeigma', analogy] is a kind of induction and with
| these people about him say is the very best evidence of fact.
| what kind of material it deals by way of induction. It is neither the relation
| So much so, that testimony is even a stronger mark of fact than
| of part to whole, nor of whole to part, nor of one whole to another whole, but
| 'the facts themselves', or rather than what must now be thought
| of part to part, of like to like, when both come under the same genus, but one
| of as the 'appearances' themselves. (I may remark, by the way,
| of them is better known than the other. For example, to prove that Dionysius
| that this remains so through life; testimony will convince a
| is aiming at a tyranny, because he asks for a bodyguard, one might say that
| man that he himself is mad.)
| Pisistratus before him and Theagenes of Megara did the same, and when they
| obtained what they asked for made themselves tyrants. All the other
| tyrants known may serve as an example of Dionysius, whose reason,
| however, for asking for a bodyguard we do not yet know. All these
| examples are contained under the same universal proposition, that
| one who is aiming at a tyranny asks for a bodyguard.
|
|
| A child hears it said that the stove is hot. But it is not, he says;
| Aristotle, "Art of Rhetoric", 1.2.19
|
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.233.
| Aristotle, "The 'Art' of Rhetoric",
|
| John Henry Freese (trans.), in:
|'Aristotle, Volume 22', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1926, 1982.
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 17===
<pre>
The Likely Story:
Its likely Moral.
Those of you who stayed with the tour have been strolling with me
through the Socratic and the Peripatetic wings of a gallery devoted
to the Classical background of Peirce's theory of signs and inquiry,
and the exhibits that I have collected there have been gathering dust
in that Museum of Incidental Musements for a score of Summers or more.
If I were to state the theme of the show it'd come out a bit like this:
| There is a continuity between approximate (likely, probable)
| and apodeictic (demonstrative, exact) patterns of reasoning,
| with the latter being the limiting ideal of the former type.
Having spent the lion's share of my waking and my dreaming life
trying to put things together that others are busy taking apart,
I found that it often helps to return to the sources of streams,
where opposing banks of perspectives are a bit less riven apart.
For example, modus tollens is a pattern of inference
in deductive reasoning that takes the following form:
A => B
~B
--------
~A
Probably the most common pattern of inference
in empirical reasoning takes a form like this:
H_0 = the null hypothesis. Typically, H_0 says
that a couple of factors X and Y are independent,
in effect, that they have no lawlike relationship.
D_0 = the null distribution of outcomes.
In part, D_0 says that particular types
of possible outcomes have probabilities
of happening that are very near to zero.
Let us assume that D_0 => G_0, with G_0
being the proposition that an event E_0
has a close to zero chance of happening.
We are given the theoretical propositions:
(1) H_0 => D_0 and (2) D_0 => G_0, and so
we may assume that (3) H_0 => G_0.
Let's say that we do the relevant experiment,
and, lo and behold, we observe the event E_0,
that is supposed to be unlikely if H_0 holds.
Now it's not a logical contradiction, but we
take E_0 as evidence against G_0 anyway, and
by modus tollens as evidence contrary to H_0.
We may view this typical pattern of "significance testing"
as a statistical generalization of the modus tollens rule.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
VOLS. Note 17 -- Dup or Correction?
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
The Likely Story:
Its likely Moral.
Those of you who stayed with the tour have been strolling with me
through the Socratic and the Peripatetic wings of a gallery devoted
to the Classical background of Peirce's theory of signs and inquiry,
and the exhibits that I have collected there have been gathering dust
in that Museum of Incidental Musements for a score of Summers or more.
If I were to state the theme of the show it'd come out a bit like this:
| There is a continuity between approximate (likely, probable)
| and apodeictic (demonstrative, exact) patterns of reasoning,
| with the latter being the limiting ideal of the former type.
Having spent the lion's share of my waking and my dreaming life
trying to put things together that others are busy taking apart,
I found that it often helps to return to the sources of streams,
where opposing banks of perspectives are a bit less riven apart.
For example, modus tollens is a pattern of inference
in deductive reasoning that takes the following form:
A => B
~B
--------
~A
Probably the most common pattern of inference
in empirical reasoning takes a form like this:
H_0 = the null hypothesis. Typically, H_0 says
that a couple of factors X and Y are independent,
in effect, that they have no lawlike relationship.
D_0 = the null distribution of outcomes.
In part, D_0 says that particular types
of possible outcomes have probabilities
of happening that are very near to zero.
Let us assume that D_0 => G_0, with G_0
being the proposition that an event E_0
has a close to zero chance of happening.
We are given the theoretical propositions:
(1) H_0 => D_0 and (2) D_0 => G_0, and so
we may assume that (3) H_0 => G_0.
Let's say that we do the relevant experiment,
and, lo and behold, we observe the event E_0,
that is supposed to be unlikely if H_0 holds.
Now it's not a logical contradiction, but we
take E_0 as evidence against G_0 anyway, and
by modus tollens as evidence contrary to H_0.
We may view this typical pattern of "significance testing"
as a statistical generalization of the modus tollens rule.
</pre>
===VOLS. Note 18===
<pre>
| The dull green time-stained panes
| of the windows look upon each other
| with the cowardly glances of cheats.
|
| Maxim Gorky, 'Creatures That Once Were Men'
Peirce is a reflective practitioner of pragmatic thinking,
which is to say that he puts the interpreter back into the
scene of observation, from whence he has, from time to time,
been elevated beyond implication, or exiled beyond redemption.
</pre>
==VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories • Discussion==
<pre>
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
Seth,
> P1. "we think each one of our beliefs to be true,
> and, indeed, it is mere tautology to say so" (CP 5.375).
>
> And here are the pair of sentences which you impute to Peirce qua fallibilist,
> which you regard as being paradoxical in import. S1 is your restatement of P1,
> and S2 is what you believe to be the fallibilist view.
>
> S1. (For every x)(I believe x -> x is true).
This has been said before, by Peter Skagestad and
probably others, but S1 is not a paraphrase of P1.
of answers seriously.
A better try would be, for all propositions P and persons Q,
If P is a belief of Q, then Q thinks that P is true.
And that is a tautology, in the sense of repeating oneself.
This is aside from the fact that Peirce's semantics
for "Q believes P" is not what you assume for it,
nor is his usage of quantifiers what you assume.
The first time I heard this one, it was posed as being about
of literature without more than the ordinary quota of wax in our
"referential opacity" or "non-substitutability of identicals"
in intentional contexts, which is a typical symptom of using
2-adic relations where 3-adic relations are called for, and
even Russell and Quine briefly consider this, though both
of them shy away on the usual out-Occaming Occam grounds.
If you were going to take a lesson from Quine,
I think you might well begin with his holism,
and quit parapharsing texts out of context.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
JA = Jon Awbrey
SS = Seth Sharpless
SS: Well at last you address the issue directly, saying what
Peter Skagestad already said, to which I have previously
given my response for what it was worth.
SS: As for your comment,
If I understood the Why then I might have a clue to the what -- that would be
| If you were going to take a lesson from Quine,
a functional explanation, in the way that the word "function" used to be used
| I think you might well begin with his holism,
| and quit parapharsing texts out of context,
SS: the context of the P1 quote in the 1877 paper on "Fixation of Belief" is very familiar
"Two Dogmas of Empiricism, but perusers of Peirce will already have experienced
to most contributors to this list, my S1 paraphrase was explicit and could be (and was)
judged for its fidelity to the original, and I have scrupulously given sources for other
passages to which I have referred, quoting the less familiar passages verbatim.
and that he characterized far less picaresquely under the category of "Secondness".
SS: Yes, holism, theories of belief revision, theories of the structure of propositions
and the logic of relations, intensional and situational logic, Gricean conversational
maxims, theories of inquiry and the history of science, these and much else could be
brought to bear on this little problem, which is one of the things that make it
interesting.
SS: I have taken note of your admonitions on how I ought to behave.
May I suggest that a little collegiality on your part would
the plot of which I am charting out on the Ontology List, in progress here:
not be out of place.
Seth,
I will try to tell you where I am really coming from,
in this and all of the other matters of interest to
this Forum, as it appears that my epigraphic use of
quotations from Russell, Dewey, and Julius Caesar
may have confused you about the name of the camp
from which I presently look out.
I studied analytic, existential, oriental, phenomenological,
and pragmatic philosophy, among several others, pretty much
in parallel, for many years as an undergraduate (1967-1976) --
The "Just In Time Logic" thread, to express it in contemporary terms --
yes, that long, for it was an "interesting time", after all --
that's one way to make it sound smarter, I guess -- will contemplate
then I pursued graduate studies in mathematics, then later
psychology, in the meantime working mostly as a consulting
statistician and computer jockey for a mix of academic and
professional school research units.
The more experience that I gained in applying formal sciences --
mathematical, computational, statistical, and logical methods --
to the problems that I continued to see coming up in research,
the more that my philosophical reflections on my work led me
choose among those that "worked" and those that did not.
I can do no better than to report my observations from this experience.
The mix of ideas that I learned from analytic philosophy just never
quite addresses the realities of phenomena and practices that are
involved in real-live inquiry, while the body of ideas contained
in the work of Peirce and Dewey, and sometimes James and Mead,
continues to be a source of genuine insight into the actual
problems of succeeding at science.
From this perspective, the important thing is whether a philosophical outlook
address the experiential phenomena that are present in the field, and whether
it gives us some insight into why the methods that work there manage to do so,
for the sake of improving how they manage to do so in the future.
An approximate formulation that addresses the realities of phenomena,
practices, and problems in inquiry is vastly preferable to an exact
formulation of some other subject, that has no relation to the job.
I directly addressed the material issues that raised from the very first.
That is, after all, a rather old joke. But you have simply ignored all
of the alternate directions that I indicated, all of them arising from
the substance and the intent of Peirce's work.
The little puzzle that you have been worrying us over is typical of
the sort of abject silliness that so-called analytic philosophy has
wasted the last hundred years of intellectual history with, and I,
for one, believe that it is time to move on.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
Seth,
> P1. "we think each one of our beliefs to be true,
> and, indeed, it is mere tautology to say so" (CP 5.375).
>
> And here are the pair of sentences which you impute to Peirce qua fallibilist,
> which you regard as being paradoxical in import. S1 is your restatement of P1,
> and S2 is what you believe to be the fallibilist view.
>
> S1. (For every x)(I believe x -> x is true).
JA: This has been said before, by Peter Skagestad and
probably others, but S1 is not a paraphrase of P1.
JA: A better try would be, for all propositions P and persons Q,
JA: If P is a belief of Q, then Q thinks that P is true.
JA: And that is a tautology, in the sense of repeating oneself.
JA: This is aside from the fact that Peirce's semantics
for "Q believes P" is not what you assume for it,
nor is his usage of quantifiers what you assume.
JA: The first time I heard this one, it was posed as being about
"referential opacity" or "non-substitutability of identicals"
in intentional contexts, which is a typical symptom of using
2-adic relations where 3-adic relations are called for, and
even Russell and Quine briefly consider this, though both
of them shy away on the usual out-Occaming Occam grounds.
JA: If you were going to take a lesson from Quine,
I think you might well begin with his holism,
and quit parapharsing texts out of context.
What Peirce says here is simply the common sense truism
that what a person believes is what that person believes
to be true, and therefore the appendix "to be true" is
veriformly redundant. This has no special bearing on
fallibility except that when a person changes a belief
then that person ipso facto changes a belief as to what
is true.
When one changes a belief
from something of the form A
to something of the form ~A,
then 1 of 3 things can occur:
1. A is true, in which case one is now wrong to believe ~A.
2. A is not true, in which case one was wrong to believe A.
3. The distinction between A and ~A is ill-formed, in which
case one was wrong in believing that it was well-formed.
In either case, one has has actualized one's fallibility.
As I explained in my first remarks on this issue, the proper context for understanding
Peirce's statements about belief -- for anyone who really wishes to do that -- since
belief is a state that he calls the end of inquiry, is Peirce's theory of inquiry,
which process he analyzes in terms of the three principal types of inference that
he recognizes, placing that study within the study of logic, which he treats
as more or less equivalent to semiotics, or the theory of sign relations.
Since Peirce holds that all of our thoughts and beliefs and so on are
signs, and since sign relations are 3-adic relations, the ultimate
context for understanding what Peirce says about belief and error
and so on -- for anyone who really wishes to do that -- is the
context of 3-adic sign relations and the semiotic processes
that take place in these frames. Quine's holism, as best
I can remember from my studies of 30 years ago, says that
we cannot translate single statements, but only whole
theories, and I find that an admirable sentiment,
independently of how consistent Quine may have
been in his application of it. Your attempt
at a paraphrase, which I can only suspect
began with the punchline and tried to
attach Peirce as the fall guy, fails
already on syntactic grounds, since
it does not preserve even the form
of what Peirce said, and although
you provide no explicit semantics
for the concept of belief you are
attempting to attach to Peirce's
statement, whereas Peirce's gave
us many further statements of
what he meant, fails on the
minimal semantic grounds
that no false statement
can be the paraphrase
of a true sentence.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
JA = Jon Awbrey
JR = Joe Ransdell
SS = Seth Sharpless
SS: I shall try to address your objection to my argument with the kind
of civility that I wish you could show for me. You were apparently
not satisfied with my reply to Peter Skagestad and Mark Silcox when
they made the same objection you are now making, so I will try to
make my argument clearer.
I only have a moment, and so I will save this note for a more careful review later.
I can see that you are in earnest, but my general impression is that you are moving
at a high rate of speed down a no outlet alley, and perhaps a bit too focussed on the
syntactic peculiarities of one particular fragment, when Peirce himself has provided us
with ample paraphrases and amplifications of his intended sense on this very same point.
I wish I could convince you that the quantifiers and their interlacings
are irrelevant to the actual sense of what Peirce is saying here, as he
is merely observing a pragmatic equivalence between two situations that
may be expressed in relational predicates of yet to be determined arity.
Failing that, we will have to examine what Peirce in 1877 might have
meant by what you are assuming is the implicit quantifier signalled
by "each". This is an issue that I have studied long and hard, but
have avoided raising it so far, mostly out of a prospective despair
at my present capacity to render it clear. Maybe it is time.
But really, it is not necesssary to get what Peirce is
saying here, which is a fairly simple, common sense
point, idiomatically expressed, and, most likely,
irreducibly so. It would be a far better thing
we do if we adopt the hermeneutic principle of
looking for the author's own paraphrases and
approximations, even if not exact from
a purely syntactic point of view.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
SS, quoting JA, citing JR, paraphrasing SS, interpreting CSP:
| And here are the pair of sentences which you impute to Peirce qua
| fallibilist, which you regard as being paradoxical in import.
|
| P1. "we think each one of our beliefs to be true, and,
| indeed, it is mere tautology to say so" (CP 5.375)
|
| S1 is your restatement of P1 ...
|
| S1. (For every x)(I believe x -> x is true).
SS, quoting JA:
| This has been said before, by Peter Skagestad and
| probably others, but S1 is not a paraphrase of P1.
|
| A better try would be, for all propositions P and persons Q,
|
| If P is a belief of Q, then Q thinks that P is true.
|
| And that is a tautology, in the sense of repeating oneself.
SS: No, Jon, you have not got it quite right. S1 was not my restatement of P1;
I gave S1 as a paraphrase of what a believer must believe, given that P1 is true.
That is not quite the same (though in later passages, I did sometimes carelessly
refer to S1 as a "paraphrase of P1").
SS: In response to the objection of Peter Skagestad and Mark Silcox,
which is the same as that which you are now making, I conceded that:
SS: (1) (For every x)I believe(I believe x -> x is true)
SS: is not the same as:
SS: (2) I believe(For every x)(I believe x-> x is true).
SS: But on the assumption that the believer is intelligent,
and that he sees the conditional in (1) as a necessary
("tautologous") truth, he should be able to make an
inference like the following:
SS: "Any arbitrarily chosen belief of mine must be believed by me to be true"
SS: Therefore,
SS: "All my beliefs are believed by me to be true"
SS: which is a valid universal generalization of the same kind as:
SS: Any arbitrarily chosen natural number must be a product of primes;
therefore, all natural numbers are products of primes.
SS: Any arbitrarily chosen cat must be a mammal;
therefore, all cats are mammals.
SS: It is true that this is an inference that calls for some logical skill on the part of
the believer, so that someone could believe P1 without believing S1, but we are talking
about Peirce, and whether HIS belief in fallibilism is consistent with HIS belief in P1.
I think there can be no doubt about his belief in P1. As to what it is exactly that he
believes, when he believes in fallibilism, that is a more difficult question. I am now
having doubts that "Some of my beliefs are false," or
SS: (S2) (For some x)(I believe x & x is not true)
SS: fairly expresses Peirce's Fallibilism. I discussed that possibility in my
summary letter, under the heading "First Solution." More needs to be said
about it, but I'll keep it for another communication, possibly in response
to Joseph's forthcoming letter.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
JA = Jon Awbrey
JR = Joe Ransdell
SS = Seth Sharpless
SS: I shall try to address your objection to my argument with the kind
of civility that I wish you could show for me. You were apparently
not satisfied with my reply to Peter Skagestad and Mark Silcox when
they made the same objection you are now making, so I will try to
make my argument clearer.
I would try to address the issue of civility,
but my defense would have to take the form,
"But Ma, he hit me first!", and I long ago
learned the recursive futility of setting
foot on such a path.
JA: I only have a moment, and so I will save this note for
a more careful review later. I can see that you are in
earnest, but my general impression is that you are moving
at a high rate of speed down a no outlet alley, and perhaps
a bit too focussed on the syntactic peculiarities of one
particular fragment, when Peirce himself has provided
us with ample paraphrases and amplifications of his
intended sense on this very same point.
I have already mentioned another locus where Peirce adverts to this issue,
but this time with all of the requisite qualifiers and all of the nuanced
indicators of relative significance intact, and that is in this passage:
| Two things here are all-important to assure oneself of
| and to remember. The first is that a person is not
| absolutely an individual. His thoughts are what
| he is "saying to himself", that is, is saying
| to that other self that is just coming into
| life in the flow of time. When one reasons,
| it is that critical self that one is trying
| to persuade; and all thought whatsoever is a
| sign, and is mostly of the nature of language.
| The second thing to remember is that the man's
| circle of society (however widely or narrowly
| this phrase may be understood), is a sort of
| loosely compacted person, in some respects of
| higher rank than the person of an individual
| organism. It is these two things alone that
| render it possible for you -- but only in
| the abstract, and in a Pickwickian sense --
| to distinguish between absolute truth
| and what you do not doubt.
|
| CSP, CP 5.421.
|
| Charles Sanders Peirce, "What Pragmatism Is",
|'The Monist', Volume 15, 1905, pages 161-181,
| Also in the 'Collected Papers', CP 5.411-437.
If we wanted a bone to pick,
this one promises more beef.
Another approach that might be more productive,
if no less controversial, would be through the
examination of the distinction between what we
frequently call "belief" and "knowledge", and
why the distinction collapses or degenerates
for the fictively isolated individual agent.
JA, amending JA:
I wish I could convince you that the quantifiers and their interlacings
are irrelevant to the actual sense of what Peirce is saying here, as he
is merely observing a pragmatic equivalence between two situations that
may be expressed in relational predicates of yet to be determined arity.
Failing that, we will have to examine what Peirce in 1877 might have
meant by what you are assuming is the implicit quantifier signalled
by "each". This is an issue that I have studied long and hard, but
have avoided raising so far, mostly out of a prospective despair
at my present capacity to render it clear. Maybe it is time.
But really, it is not necesssary to do this just in order to
get what Peirce is saying here, which is a fairly simple,
common sense point, idiomatically expressed, and, most
likely, irreducibly so. It would be a far better
thing we do if we adopt the hermeneutic principle
of looking for the author's own paraphrases and
approximations, even if not exactly identical
from a purely syntactic point of view.
A minimal caution about this point would require us to recognize
two distinct dimensions of variation in the usage of quantifiers:
1. The difference in usage between Peirce 1877 and the
post-Fregean scene of our contemporary discussions.
2. The difference in usage between most mathematicians, then and now,
and people who identify themselves as "logicists" or "linguists".
We probably cannot help ourselves from translating Peirce 1877
into our own frame of reference, but we should be aware of the
potential for distortion that arises from the anachronisms and
the dialectic disluxations that will as a consequence result.
SS, quoting JA, citing JR, paraphrasing SS, interpreting CSP:
| And here are the pair of sentences which you impute to Peirce qua
| fallibilist, which you regard as being paradoxical in import.
|
| P1. "we think each one of our beliefs to be true, and,
| indeed, it is mere tautology to say so" (CP 5.375)
|
| S1 is your restatement of P1 ...
|
| S1. (For every x)(I believe x -> x is true).
SS, quoting JA:
| This has been said before, by Peter Skagestad and
| probably others, but S1 is not a paraphrase of P1.
|
| A better try would be, for all propositions P and persons Q,
|
| If P is a belief of Q, then Q thinks that P is true.
|
| And that is a tautology, in the sense of repeating oneself.
SS: No, Jon, you have not got it quite right. S1 was not my restatement of P1;
I gave S1 as a paraphrase of what a believer must believe, given that P1 is true.
That is not quite the same (though in later passages, I did sometimes carelessly
refer to S1 as a "paraphrase of P1").
I have no probleme with the idea that interpretation is inescapably abductive:
http://www.chss.montclair.edu/inquiry/fall95/awbrey.html
The question is whether the interpretant preserves a semblance of the meaning.
SS: In response to the objection of Peter Skagestad and Mark Silcox,
which is the same as that which you are now making, I conceded that:
SS: (1) (For every x)I believe(I believe x -> x is true)
Peirce did not say this.
SS: is not the same as:
SS: (2) I believe(For every x)(I believe x-> x is true).
Peirce did not say this.
SS: But on the assumption that the believer is intelligent,
and that he sees the conditional in (1) as a necessary
("tautologous") truth, he should be able to make an
inference like the following:
The conditional in (1) is not necessary.
I don't know anybody who would say this.
SS: "Any arbitrarily chosen belief of mine must be believed by me to be true"
This is a non-sequitur. Oh wait.
Any arbitrarily chosen belief of mine must be believed-by-me-to-be-true.
Okay. But that's what he said in the first place.
And this statement does not confict with believing
that some belief of mine may turn-out-to-be-false.
A statement can be believed-by-me-to-be-true and turn-out-to-be-false.
Peirce's statement again:
| But we think each one of our beliefs to be true,
| and, indeed, it is mere tautology to say so.
|
| CSP, 'Collected Papers', CP 5.375
This has the form of:
| But we can cover any distance we can run at a pace faster than a walk.
Straightened out a bit:
| Any distance we can run is a distance we can cover faster than a walk.
The tautology is one that occurs at the level of the two predicates:
"runnable" and "coverable at a pace faster than a walk". It would
be better to avoid worrying about the quantifiers in this reading.
SS: Therefore,
SS: "All my beliefs are believed by me to be true"
SS: which is a valid universal generalization of the same kind as:
SS: Any arbitrarily chosen natural number must be a product of primes;
therefore, all natural numbers are products of primes.
SS: Any arbitrarily chosen cat must be a mammal;
therefore, all cats are mammals.
SS: It is true that this is an inference that calls for some logical skill on the
part of the believer, so that someone could believe P1 without believing S1,
but we are talking about Peirce, and whether HIS belief in fallibilism is
consistent with HIS belief in P1. I think there can be no doubt about
his belief in P1. As to what it is exactly that he believes, when he
believes in fallibilism, that is a more difficult question. I am now
having doubts that "Some of my beliefs are false," or
SS: (S2) (For some x)(I believe x & x is not true)
SS: fairly expresses Peirce's Fallibilism. I discussed that possibility in my
summary letter, under the heading "First Solution". More needs to be said
about it, but I'll keep it for another communication, possibly in response
to Joseph's forthcoming letter.
I believe that the generic problem here is a "poverty of syntax".
Syntax, expecially isolated syntax fragments of natural language
idioms, may constrain but it cannot utterly determine the models.
You have to gather independent evidence as to what the intended
models may be. In Peirce's case, his use of the word "belief",
as in "state of belief" as in "The irritation of doubt causes a
struggle to attain a state of belief", simply points to a whole
different order of models (universes + predicates) than the ones
that you are presently taking for granted as the only possible
models, most likely importing them from the discussions with
which you have become familiar on the contemporary scene.
One of the most significant aspects of Peirce's whole
approach is that he is talking about a process, one
in which signs, in particular, beliefs and concepts,
can enter and exit the pool of accepted, acted on,
adopted, trusted, utilized resources. Your use
of quantifiers is assuming a static situation,
as if the population of beliefs were fixed,
no pun, for once, intended. This is why
you appear to be repeating Parmenidean
paradoxes in the mental realm, as if
to show that changing one's mind is
impossible. It is not necessary
to invent modal or tensed logic
to deal with this, as change
can be modeled in the ways
that mathematics has been
doing it for a long time.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
Note 13
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
I believe that one should always steer into a skid, but I doubt it.
That expresses the swerve of my learned dispositions, in cars with
rear-wheel drives on icy roads, and its corrective waylaying by my
first trip in a rental car, with front-wheel drive, on an icy road,
about as well as any collection of mere linguistic mechanisms will.
The circumstunts that mere words will not convey what I learned by
way of this adventition and all of my other near-death experiences
in this life is merely the insufficiency of words and their author.
Phenomena come first, theories come later,
on the evolutionary scale of time, anyway.
The circumstance that theories are always
falling short of phenomena in some degree,
does not stay the phenomenon in its orbit.
Animate creatures capable of inquiry, people like us, acted on dispositions
that we call "belief" and experienced experiences that we call "doubt" long
before they had the concepts, much less the words, "belief" and "doubt", or
universal quantifiers "all" and "each", with or without existential import,
with or without hypostatic general import, with or without game-theoretic
import, with or without predesignated domains of quantification, with or
without you name what comes next. Concepts, mental symbols to pragmatic
thinkers, are instrumental goods that we import through the customs of
biology and culture. They come and go. I love the game of etymology
and enjoy an apt bit of ordinary language analysis as much as anyone
has a right to, but the theory that you can wring all your theories
of phenomena, no matter how complex, out of commonsense word usage
is a notion whose time has come and gone. It just ain't science.
| Belief and doubt may be conceived to be distinguished only in degree.
|
| CSP, CE 3, pages 21.
|
| C.S. Peirce, MS 182, 1872, "Chapter 1 (Enlarged Abstract)", pages 20-21 in:
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 3, 1872-1878',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1986.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
</pre>
==VOOP. Varieties Of Ontology Project==
<pre>
Problem Statement.
A. What are the different types of ontology projects
that are covered by our current scope and purpose?
B. What are the criteria that are appropriate
to each of the different ontology projects?
Given, then, that different types of ontology projects
will have different criteria for the acceptability and
the adequacy of proposals at each stage of development,
let us see if we can formulate the respective criteria
for a number of ontology projects that fall within the
charge, scope and purpose of a standard upper ontology.
A variety of ontology projects come to mind.
I will give them these working designations:
1. ROSO
What are the minimal criteria of acceptability of
a "research oriented scientific ontology" (ROSO)?
2. ULTO
What are the minimal criteria of acceptability for
an "upper level technical ontology" (ULTO)?
3. URFO
What are the minimal criteria of acceptability for
an "un-reflective folk ontology" (URFO)?
We've all concurred, or at least relented, that there's
room enough under the Standard Umbrella Ontology for the
type of "un-reflective folk ontology" (URFO) that concerns
itself mostly with "shoes, ships, sealing wax", and so on,
but the question remains, on less rainy days, whether the
principles and the parameters that suit the garden variety
URFO are adaptable to the rigors of the ROSO and the ULTO.
After we have settled on the minimal criteria of acceptability,
we might then venture into establishing the ideal criteria of
adequacy for the respective types of ontologies.
Defining, or at least characterizing these types
of ontology projects would of course be a major
part of the task of developing the respective
criteria for acceptability and adequacy.
Notes from previous exchanges:
JA = Jon Awbrey
JH = Jay Halcomb
PG = Pierre Grenon
PG: Never the less, it seems to me that this group would be
better off if proposed material was judged on criteria
similar to those by which the final product shall be
evaluated, rather than dependent upon pleasant
email exchanges.
JH: I agree with this view, which was the essential point
of my last e-mail -- getting more specific about such
criteria for working documents.
JA: Many people, present writer included, have observed that the criteria
appropriate to different kinds of ontology applications and projects,
all of them nonetheless falling under the rather large tent of our
scope and purpose document, may be radically different.
JA: In particular, I have pointed to the differences in working methodology
and goals of research oriented ontologies and, for the lack of a better
name, so-called commonsense ontologies.
JH: Precisely so. I think that we've many of us said these similar
things at one time or another, and we always return to them when
a proposal is made (recall the discussion about the CycL language
when that proposal was made). That is why I think that developing
clearer acceptance criteria, upfront, for specifying these various
targets is important, when it comes to working documents for the
group. Specifically, developing specification criteria for
terminologies, languages, and logic(s). I would hope the
IFF folks should have some specific thoughts about this.
JA: Until a better term comes along, I'm using the word "project"
somewhat in the way that people speak of cultural projects or
existential projects -- broad, compelling, if slightly vague
intimations of something that needs to be done.
JA: Here is a narrative about one sort of ontology project,
the aims, criteria, and working assumptions of which
I am acquainted with, and feel like I understand:
JA: I once got sold on the project of building software bridges between
qualitative and quantitative research. For example, in many areas
of clinical practice, medical anthropology, and public health one
has "practitioner-scientist models" where people accumulate lots
of free-floating informal hunches and qualitative impressions in
their on-the-job settings, that they then need to follow up with
hard data gathering, quantitatively measurable constructs, and
the usual battery of statistical methods. A lot of practical
savvy never gets widely distributed, and a lot of benighted
mythology never gets tested, all for the lack of good ways
to refine this "personal knowledge" into scientific truth.
JA: It still seems to me that properly designed lexical and logical resources
ought to provide us with some of the plancks we need to build this bridge.
JA: At first strike, it sounds like this ought to involve an integration of
research oriented and common sense ontologies. But there has seemed to
arise one insurmountable obstacle after another in trying to do this.
JA: Just by way of focusing on a concrete illustration, take the word "event".
Formalizing the concept of "event" for a research oriented ontology does
not require any discusssion on our part. Those discussions were carried
out somewhere between the days of powdered-wig-wearing-high-rollers and
the days of manurial comparisons. To get the standard axioms, one goes
to a standard reference book and copies them into one's knowledge base:
| PAS. Probability And Statistics -- Ontology List
|
| 01. http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04885.html
| 02. http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04886.html
| 03. http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04887.html
| 04. http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04888.html
|
| et sic deinceps ...
JA: The only question is whether one's favorite ontology prover is up to
the snuff of proving whatever theorems need to be proved thereon.
JA: There can be no compromise with these criteria.
The research market simply will not bear it.
So if there is to be an integration with
nontechnical language and methodology,
it must be an augmentation of these
basics and not their overwriting.
JA: I have gotten used to the idea that there is another sort of ontology project,
but since I do not get the cogency of it, it seems like its definition and its
criteria of validity would have to come from the critical self-examination of
those whose project it is. All I know at present is that the obvious course
that I suggested above for formalizing the concept "event" is probably the
course of last resort from the standpoint of this alternative project.
JA: That is what I mean by radical differences in working criteria for acceptance.
JA: Similar disjunctions of approach and acceptability could be observed
for several other dimensions of diversity among ontological projects,
for example, the "already been chewed" vs. the "knowledge soup" brands,
that is, those who expect full-fledged axiom systems from the outset
vs. those who would gel their knowledge chunks out of a semiotic sol.
</pre>
==VORE. Varieties Of Recalcitrant Experience==
===VORE. Note 1===
<pre>
| Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was
| a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that
| was down along the road met a nicens little boy named
| baby tuckoo ....
|
| His father told him that story: his father looked at him
| through a glass: he had a hairy face.
|
| He was baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where
| Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt.
|
| O, the wild rose blossoms
| On the little green place.
|
| He sang that song. That was his song.
|
| O, the green wothe botheth.
|
| Joyce, 'Portrait', p. 1.
|
| James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man',
| Bantam, New York, NY, 1992. Originally published 1916.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 2===
<pre>
| It was the hour for sums. Father Arnall wrote a hard sum on the
| board and then said:
|
| -- Now then, who will win? Go ahead, York! Go ahead, Lancaster!
|
| Stephen tried his best but the sum was too hard and he felt confused.
| The little silk badge with the white rose on it that was pinned on the
| breast of his jacket began to flutter. He was no good at sums but he
| tried his best so that York might not lose. Father Arnall's face looked
| very black but he was not in a wax: he was laughing. Then Jack Lawton
| cracked his fingers and Father Arnall looked at his copybook and said:
|
| -- Right. Bravo Lancaster! The red rose wins. Come on now, York!
| Forge ahead!
|
| Jack Lawton looked over from his side. The little silk badge with
| the red rose on it looked very rich because he had a blue sailor top
| on. Stephen felt his own face red too, thinking of all the bets about
| who would get first place in Elements, Jack Lawton or he. Some weeks
| Jack Lawton got the card for first and some weeks he got the card for
| first. His white silk badge fluttered and fluttered as he worked at
| the next sum and heard Father Arnall's voice. Then all his eagerness
| passed away and he felt his face quite cool. He thought his face must
| be white because it felt so cool. He could not get out the answer for
| the sum but it did not matter. White roses and red roses: those were
| beautiful colours to think of. And the cards for first place and third
| place were beautiful colours too: pink and cream and lavender. Lavender
| and cream and pink roses were beautiful to think of. Perhaps a wild rose
| might be like those colours and he remembered the song about the wild rose
| blossoms on the little green place. But you could not have a green rose.
| But perhaps somewhere in the world you could.
|
| Joyce, 'Portrait', pp. 6-7.
|
| James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man',
| Bantam, New York, NY, 1992. Originally published 1916.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 3===
<pre>
| The equation on the page of his scribbler began to spread out a widening tail,
| eyed and starred like a peacock's; and, when the eyes and stars of its indices
| had been eliminated, began slowly to fold itself together again. The indices
| appearing and disappearing were eyes opening and closing; the eyes opening
| and closing were stars being born and being quenched. The vast cycle
| of starry life bore his weary mind outward to its verge and inward
| to its centre, a distant music accompanying him outward and inward.
| What music? The music came nearer and he recalled the words, the
| words of Shelley's fragment upon the moon wandering companionless,
| pale for weariness. The stars began to crumble and a cloud of
| fine star-dust fell through space.
|
| The dull light fell more faintly upon the page whereon another equation
| began to unfold itself slowly and to spread abroad its widening tail.
| It was his own soul going forth to experience, unfolding itself
| sin by sin, spreading abroad the balefire of its burning stars
| and folding back upon itself, fading slowly, quenching its
| own lights and fires. They were quenched: and the
| cold darkness filled chaos.
|
| Joyce, 'Portrait', p. 97.
|
| James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man',
| Bantam, New York, NY, 1992. Originally published 1916.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 4===
<pre>
| The formula which he wrote obediently on the sheet of paper, the coiling and
| uncoiling calculations of the professor, the spectrelike symbols of force and
| velocity fascinated and jaded Stephen's mind. He had heard some say that the
| old professor was an atheist freemason. Oh, the grey dull day! It seemed a
| limbo of painless patient consciousness through which souls of mathematicians
| might wander, projecting long slender fabrics from plane to plane of ever rarer
| and paler twilight, radiating swift eddies to the last verges of a universe ever
| vaster, farther and more impalpable.
|
| -- So we must distinguish between elliptical and ellipsoidal.
| Perhaps some of you gentlemen may be familiar with the works
| of Mr W.S. Gilbert. In one of his songs he speaks of the
| billiard sharp who is condemned to play:
|
| On a cloth untrue
| With a twisted cue
| And elliptical billiard balls.
|
| -- He means a ball having the form of the ellipsoid
| of the principal axes of which I spoke a moment ago. --
|
| Joyce, 'Portrait', pp. 185-186.
|
| James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man',
| Bantam, New York, NY, 1992. Originally published 1916.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 5===
<pre>
| I was, at that time, in Germany, whither the wars,
| which have not yet finished there, had called me,
| and as I was returning from the coronation of the
| Emperor to join the army, the onset of winter held
| me up in quarters in which, finding no company to
| distract me, and having, fortunately, no cares or
| passions to disturb me, I spent the whole day shut
| up in a room heated by an enclosed stove, where I
| had complete leisure to meditate on my own thoughts.
|
| Descartes, DOM, p. 35.
|
| Rene Descartes, "Discourse on the Method
| of Properly Conducting One's Reason and
| of Seeking the Truth in the Sciences",
| pp. 25-91 in 'Discourse on Method and
| the Meditations', translated with an
| introduction by F.E. Sutcliffe,
| Penguin, London, UK, 1968.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 6===
<pre>
| A very young child may always be observed to watch its own
| body with great attention. There is every reason why this
| should be so, for from the child's point of view this body
| is the most important thing in the universe. Only what it
| touches has any actual and present feeling; only what it
| faces has any actual color; only what is on its tongue
| has any actual taste.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.229.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 7===
<pre>
| No one questions that, when a sound is heard by a child, he thinks,
| not of himself as hearing, but of the bell or other object as sounding.
| How when he wills to move a table? Does he then think of himself as
| desiring, or only of the table as fit to be moved? That he has the
| latter thought, is beyond question; that he has the former, must,
| until the existence of an intuitive self-consciousness is proved,
| remain an arbitrary and baseless supposition. There is no good
| reason for thinking that he is less ignorant of his own peculiar
| condition than the angry adult who denies that he is in a passion.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.230.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 8===
<pre>
| The child, however, must soon discover by observation
| that things which are thus fit to be changed are apt
| actually to undergo this change, after a contact with
| that peculiarly important body called Willy or Johnny.
| This consideration makes this body still more important
| and central, since it establishes a connection between
| the fitness of a thing to be changed and a tendency in
| this body to touch it before it is changed.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.231.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 9===
<pre>
| The child learns to understand the language; that is to say, a connection
| between certain sounds and certain facts becomes established in his mind.
| He has previously noticed the connection between these sounds and the
| motions of the lips of bodies somewhat similar to the central one,
| and has tried the experiment of putting his hand on those lips
| and has found the sound in that case to be smothered. He thus
| connects that language with bodies somewhat similar to the
| central one. By efforts, so unenergetic that they should
| be called rather instinctive, perhaps, than tentative, he
| learns to produce those sounds. So he begins to converse.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.232.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 10===
<pre>
| It must be about this time that he begins to find that what
| these people about him say is the very best evidence of fact.
| So much so, that testimony is even a stronger mark of fact than
| 'the facts themselves', or rather than what must now be thought
| of as the 'appearances' themselves. (I may remark, by the way,
| that this remains so through life; testimony will convince a
| man that he himself is mad.)
|
| A child hears it said that the stove is hot. But it is not, he says;
| and, indeed, that central body is not touching it, and only what that
| touches is hot or cold. But he touches it, and finds the testimony
| confirmed in a striking way. Thus, he becomes aware of ignorance,
| and it is necessary to suppose a 'self' in which this ignorance can
| inhere. So testimony gives the first dawning of self-consciousness.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.233.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 11===
<pre>
| But, further, although usually appearances are either
| only confirmed or merely supplemented by testimony, yet
| there is a certain remarkable class of appearances which
| are continually contradicted by testimony. These are those
| predicates which 'we' know to be emotional, but which 'he'
| distinguishes by their connection with the movements of that
| central person, himself (that the table wants moving, etc.)
| These judgments are generally denied by others. Moreover, he
| has reason to think that others, also, have such judgments which
| are quite denied by all the rest. Thus, he adds to the conception
| of appearance as the actualization of fact, the conception of it as
| something 'private' and valid only for one body. In short, 'error'
| appears, and it can be explained only by supposing a 'self' which
| is fallible.
|
| Ignorance and error are all that
| distinguish our private selves
| from the absolute 'ego' of
| pure apperception.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.234-235.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 12===
<pre>
| Now, the theory which, for the sake of perspicuity, has thus
| been stated in a specific form, may be summed up as follows:
|
| At the age at which we know children to be self-conscious, we know that
| they have been made aware of ignorance and error; and we know them to
| possess at that age powers of understanding sufficient to enable them
| to infer from ignorance and error their own existence.
|
| Thus we find that known faculties, acting under conditions known
| to exist, would rise to self-consciousness. The only essential
| defect in this account of the matter is, that while we know that
| children exercise 'as much' understanding as is here supposed,
| we do not know that they exercise it in precisely this way.
| Still the supposition that they do so is infinitely more
| supported by facts, than the supposition of a wholly
| peculiar faculty of the mind.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.236.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 13===
<pre>
| The only argument worth noticing
| for the existence of an intuitive
| self-consciousness is this:
|
| We are more certain of our own existence than of any other fact;
| a premiss cannot determine a conclusion to be more certain than
| it is itself; hence, our own existence cannot have been inferred
| from any other fact.
|
| The first premiss must be admitted, but the second premiss is founded
| on an exploded theory of logic. A conclusion cannot be more certain
| than that some one of the facts which support it is true, but it may
| easily be more certain than any one of those facts.
|
| Let us suppose, for example, that a dozen witnesses testify to an occurrence.
| Then my belief in that occurrence rests on the belief that each of those men
| is generally to be believed upon oath. Yet the fact testified to is made
| more certain than that any one of those men is generally to be believed.
|
| In the same way, to the developed mind of man, his own existence is supported
| by 'every other fact', and is, therefore, incomparably more certain than any
| one of these facts. But it cannot be said to be more certain than that there
| is another fact, since there is no doubt perceptible in either case.
|
| It is to be concluded, then, that there is no necessity of supposing an intuitive
| self-consciousness, since self-consciousness may easily be the result of inference.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions", CP 5.237.
|
| C.S. Peirce, "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man",
| paragraphs CP 5.213-263 in 'Collected Papers', Harvard University Press,
| Cambridge, MA, 1960. First published, 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy',
| vol. 2, pp. 103-114, 1868.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 14===
<pre>
| His soul had arisen from the grave of boyhood, spurning her graveclothes.
| Yes! Yes! Yes! He would create proudly out of the freedom and power of
| his soul, as the great artificer whose name he bore, a living thing,
| new and soaring and beautiful, impalpable, imperishable.
|
| Joyce, 'Portrait', pp. 163-164.
|
| James Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man',
| Bantam, New York, NY, 1992. Originally published 1916.
</pre>
===VORE. Note 15===
<pre>
| On another occasion I heard one of the grown-ups saying to
| another "When is that young Lyon coming?" I pricked up my
| ears and said "Is there a lion coming?" "Yes," they said,
| "he's coming on Sunday. He'll be quite tame and you shall
| see him in the drawing-room." I counted the days till Sunday
| and the hours through Sunday morning. At last I was told the
| young lion was in the drawing-room and I could come and see him.
| I came. And he was an ordinary young man named Lyon. I was
| utterly overwhelmed by the disenchantment and still remember
| with anguish the depths of my despair.
|
| Russell, 'Autobiography', p. 18.
|
| Bertrand Russell, 'Autobiography', with an introduction by
| Michael Foot, Routledge, London, UK, 1998. First published
| in 3 volumes by George Allen & Unwin, 1967-1969.
</pre>
==VORE. Varieties Of Recalcitrant Experience • Application==
===VORE. Application Note 1===
<pre>
Most of the year I spend my time wondering when logicians will begin
to take the phenomena and the problems of Truth In Science seriously --
but for a brief time in summer my fancy turns to wondering when they
will get around to taking Truth In Literature seriously. Now, there
is a market for this -- I especially remember an editorial or letter
in the 'Chronicle of Higher Education' a few years back, the gist of
which was a literature teacher's half plaintive half wistful wishing
for software that would help researchers and students with the truly
insightful analysis of literary texts, tools that would be sensitive
to something more than simple-minded syntactic similarities and help
us to deal with the full complexity of meanings that folks pack into
narratives, novels, poems, and other expressions of human experience.
To sharpen the point a bit, we might well ask ourselves:
Just how far do the customary categories of first order
logic take us in approaching this realm of applications?
For instance, take the term "Stephen Dedulus", in any of its variant spellings,
as it is used by James Joyce in his various works. Just for starters, is this
term a constant or a variable? Is this term individual or general? Are these
even the primary questions to ask about such a term, or do we perhaps miss the
whole point of the text -- not that I would try to be more holistic than Quine --
in approaching it from this direction?
</pre>
===VORE. Application Note 2===
<pre>
Sometimes a typo is just a typo -- among the variant spellings
of "Stephen Dedalus" that James Joyce actually uses, I mostly
had in mind "Stephen Daedelus" and "Stephanos Dedalos", but
not what I spelled out before, which was my own mistyping.
Consider the following bits of "metadata":
1. In her introduction to the Signet edition of Joyce's 'Dubliners',
Edna O'Brien tells us this:
| He chose a pseudonym, that of his future fictional character,
| Stephen Daedelus, because he was ashamed of writing, as he said,
| for the "Pigs Paper".
2. The blurb on the back of my Bantam paperback copy of 'Portrait'
tells me this:
| James Joyce's highly autobiographical novel was first published
| in the United States in 1916 to immediate acclaim. Ezra Pound
| accurately predicted that Joyce's book would "remain a permanent
| part of English literature", while H.G. Wells dubbed it "by far
| the most important living and convincing picture that exists of
| an Irish Catholic upbringing". A remarkably rich study of a
| developing mind, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'
| made an indelible mark on literature and confirmed Joyce's
| reputation as one of the world's great and lasting writers.
What do I mean by taking the phenomena and the problems of Truth In Literature
seriously? Perhaps I can explain some of what it means to me in the following
way. From the beginning of my reading experience, I am sure at least from the
days of 'See Spot Run' and 'Funny Funny Puff', it has been a standard exercise
to read a text and then to give some report of its meaning. I couldn't put my
finger on when exactly the transition occurred, but I know that it soon became
insufficient to comment on nothing more than literal aspects of the stories in
question. I'm sure that all my readers have had a similar upbringing. So you
know the brands of evasions up with which none of your teachers would have put.
In contrast with that, one of the favorite patterns of reasoning among
certain schools of logic in the last century, along with many of their
AI disciples, has gone a bit like this:
Method X is adequate to all important problems.
Problem Y is resistant to solution by Method X.
---------------------------------------------------
Therefore, Problem Y is not an important problem.
Perhaps it is just envy that I could not have gone to such a school,
but I find myself constitutionally incapable of taking these orders
of answers seriously.
</pre>
===VORE. Application Note 3===
<pre>
Many currents have brought us to the current juncture.
I will not endeavor to untangle their viscosities and
vortices, but lean to respond as responsibly as I can
to the full complex of their flows or their frictions.
If we dare, in our ship of logic, to coast past the siren shores
of literature without more than the ordinary quota of wax in our
ears, then let us lash ourselves to the mast with this guideline:
Logic should not make us stupid.
</pre>
===VORE. Application Note 4===
<pre>
What I really want to understand is the What, the How, and the Why of stories,
what stories are, their "quiddity", how stories work and why people tell them.
If I understood the Why then I might have a clue to the what -- that would be
a functional explanation, in the way that the word "function" used to be used
in anthropology and sociology, that is, before the "(neo-)functionalist turn"
turned its sense around into the opposite of what it used to mean -- but that,
as they say, is another story. If I understood the How, then maybe it would
tell me something about the what and the why of the story -- in the way that
Aristotle told us that studying the action can reveal to us the character
and the motivation. A very pragmant suggestion, that.
This study began, ostensibly enough, as what seemed like a theme out of Quine's
"Two Dogmas of Empiricism, but perusers of Peirce will already have experienced
their all too private recognition that "recalcitrant experience" is just another
name for the "brute reaction" with which the world greets our daydreams of theory,
and that he characterized far less picaresquely under the category of "Secondness".
In order to understand Quine's story it becomes necessary to examine
not only the sources that he rightly acknowledged but the springs of
his action that he failed to acknowledge or misrepresented, plus the
the backcloth of ideas that he protagonized about or reacted against.
Some data on several of these scores can be had by looking at Russell's work,
and I have in mind tracing the trajectory of a particular development there,
the plot of which I am charting out on the Ontology List, in progress here:
POLA. Philosophy Of Logical Atomism -- Ontology List 01-19
Other information on this score must come from a study of Peirce's work.
Personally, I always find that it helps to return to the source, in two
senses, at least, the precursory authors and their earliest expressions.
Two investigations along these lines have been initiated here:
JITL. Just In Time Logic -- Ontology List 01-04
VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories -- Ontology List 01-03
The "Just In Time Logic" thread, to express it in contemporary terms --
that's one way to make it sound smarter, I guess -- will contemplate
Peirce's early ideas about the "temporal dynamics of belief revision",
taking a view of the inquiry process as the time-evolution of thought.
The "Verities Of Likely Stories" theme will return to the sources of our
contemporary ideas about analogies, homologies, icons, metaphors, models,
morphisms, ..., to mention just a few kin of a Proteus-resembling family.
This is not the bottom line,
but it will have to suffice
for a middling one, since I
and you and we and ontology
are as always in medias res.
</pre>
==Document Histories==
===CROM. Critical Reflection On Method • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20150111162004/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/thread.html#905
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140627181001/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000905.html
'''Ontology List (Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070302144332/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd8.html#05124
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218070420/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05124.html
'''SUO List (Oct 2003)'''
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===CROM. Critical Reflection On Method • Discussion History===
'''Inquiry List (Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20150111162004/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/thread.html#904
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010117/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000904.html
'''Ontology List (Oct 2003)'''
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'''SUO List (Oct 2003)'''
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===DIEP. De In Esse Predication • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Sep 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120505135759/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/thread.html#780
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'''Ontology List (Sep 2003)'''
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===DIEP. De In Esse Predication • Discussion History===
'''Inquiry List (Sep 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120505135759/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/thread.html#786
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'''Ontology List (Sep 2003)'''
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# http://web.archive.org/web/20070222033848/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05051.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219072137/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05054.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070222033828/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05046.html
===HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction • Document History 1===
'''Inquiry List (Sep–Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120505135759/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/thread.html#841
* http://web.archive.org/web/20150111162004/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/thread.html#899
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001256/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000841.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001328/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000842.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014000958/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000843.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001026/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000851.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001036/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000858.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014000913/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000859.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001029/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000863.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001138/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000866.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010325/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000899.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010230/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000902.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010349/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000903.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010042/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000906.html
'''Ontology List (Sep–Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070302144332/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd8.html#05089
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070214054035/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05089.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070216005823/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05090.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070214054045/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05091.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070216005832/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05093.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218070102/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05100.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050523211120/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05101.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041512/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05105.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070216102336/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05108.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070216102358/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05118.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041305/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05121.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20060912171726/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05122.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041325/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05125.html
'''SUO List (Sep–Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20060517022017/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd45.html#10964
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035737/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10964.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075158/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10965.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075208/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10966.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075228/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10991.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075239/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11022.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075248/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11025.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075258/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11028.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075309/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11079.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041235/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11239.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035816/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11271.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070222005616/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11277.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075432/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11290.html
===HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction • Discussion History 1===
'''Inquiry List (Sep–Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120505135759/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/thread.html#844
* http://web.archive.org/web/20150111162004/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/thread.html#891
* http://web.archive.org/web/20150111162004/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/thread.html#900
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001237/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000844.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010057/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000891.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010111/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000892.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010204/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000893.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010247/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000894.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010258/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000895.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010308/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000896.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010054/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000897.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010342/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000898.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010141/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000900.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014010339/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000901.html
'''Ontology List (Sep–Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070302144332/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd8.html#05092
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070214054025/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05092.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070214053809/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05110.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070211023423/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05111.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070214053920/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05112.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219040057/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05113.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20060720162947/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05114.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20060720163027/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05115.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20060720163042/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05116.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041225/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05117.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070216102345/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05119.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041014/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05120.html
'''SUO List (Sep–Oct 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20060517022017/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd45.html#10967
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070128135114/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd53.html#11227
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075218/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10967.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075320/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11227.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075331/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11228.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075342/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11229.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070222144959/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11231.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20060721222834/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11232.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075351/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11234.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075401/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11236.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075411/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11237.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035806/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11240.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075421/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11267.html
===HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction • Document History 2===
'''[http://web.archive.org/web/20070302144332/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd8.html#05089 Ontology List (Sep–Oct 2003)]'''
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070214054035/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05089.html Continuous Predicate]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070216005823/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05090.html Dormitive Virtue]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070214054045/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05091.html Dulcitive Virtue]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070216005832/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05093.html Math Abstraction]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070218070102/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05100.html Reading Runes]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20050523211120/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05101.html Hypostatization]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041512/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05105.html Abstract Objects]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070216102336/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05108.html Subjectal Abstraction]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070216102358/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05118.html Definition of Predicate]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041305/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05121.html Second Intentions]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20060912171726/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05122.html Logical Reflexion]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041325/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05125.html Epea Apteroenta]
'''[http://web.archive.org/web/20060517022017/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd45.html#10964 SUO List (Sep–Oct 2003)]'''
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035737/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10964.html Continuous Predicate]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075158/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10965.html Dormitive Virtue]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075208/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10966.html Dulcitive Virtue]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075228/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10991.html Math Abstraction]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075239/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11022.html Reading Runes]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075248/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11025.html Hypostatization]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075258/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11028.html Abstract Objects]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075309/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11079.html Subjectal Abstraction]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041235/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11239.html Definition of Predicate]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035816/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11271.html Second Intentions]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070222005616/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11277.html Logical Reflexion]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075432/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11290.html Epea Apteroenta]
===HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction • Discussion History 2===
'''[http://web.archive.org/web/20070302144332/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd8.html#05092 Ontology List (Sep–Oct 2003)]'''
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070214054025/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05092.html Metaphormazes]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070214053809/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05110.html Deciduation Problems]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070211023423/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05111.html Thematic Recapitulation]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070214053920/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05112.html Field Key, Kitchen Recipe]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070219040057/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05113.html Indirect Self Reference]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20060720162947/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05114.html Genealogy & Paraphrasis]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20060720163027/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05115.html Intention & Reflection]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20060720163042/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05116.html Rhematic Saturation]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041225/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05117.html Relational Turn]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070216102345/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05119.html Tabula Erasa]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070218041014/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05120.html Directions]
'''SUO List (Sep–Oct 2003) • [http://web.archive.org/web/20060517022017/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd45.html#10967 (1)] • [http://web.archive.org/web/20070128135114/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd53.html#11227 (2)]'''
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075218/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10967.html Metaphormazes]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075320/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11227.html Deciduation Problems]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075331/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11228.html Thematic Recapitulation]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075342/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11229.html Field Key, Kitchen Recipe]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070222144959/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11231.html Indirect Self Reference]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20060721222834/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11232.html Genealogy & Paraphrasis]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075351/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11234.html Intention & Reflection]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075401/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11236.html Rhematic Saturation]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075411/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11237.html Relational Turn]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035806/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11240.html Tabula Erasa]
# [http://web.archive.org/web/20070305075421/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11267.html Directions]
===JITL. Just In Time Logic • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003 – Apr 2005)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#712
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120601160642/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-April/thread.html#2542
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084824/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000712.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084832/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000714.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084845/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000717.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084852/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000719.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084904/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000722.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084816/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000723.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084908/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000724.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084912/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000725.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084916/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000726.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084921/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000727.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084925/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000728.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084929/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000729.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084933/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000730.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051247/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000731.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051252/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000732.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20121113152840/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-April/002542.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20081120222140/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-April/002543.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20121113152903/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-April/002544.html
'''Ontology List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140405160400/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd11.html#04961
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140405160400/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd11.html#04965
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140405161017/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04961.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306133915/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04962.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140405160005/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04965.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134016/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04967.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134046/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04970.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134056/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04971.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134107/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04972.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134117/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04973.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134128/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04974.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134138/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04975.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134155/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04976.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134206/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04977.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134220/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04978.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134231/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04979.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134241/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04980.html
===NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Sep–Dec 2005)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140927032017/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/thread.html#3063
* http://web.archive.org/web/20150224133200/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/thread.html#3075
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152003/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/thread.html#3183
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120512004315/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3274
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927031226/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003063.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927032400/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003065.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20150221163001/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003075.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20150221163001/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003090.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927152409/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003183.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930151632/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003186.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927031019/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003187.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152056/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003189.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927145521/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003190.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927152552/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003207.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152201/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003208.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152230/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003222.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152251/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003253.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152400/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003261.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152424/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003264.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152454/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003265.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233820/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003274.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233713/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003277.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233746/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003278.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233637/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003279.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234032/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003283.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234059/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003359.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234103/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003360.html
===NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia • Commentary History===
'''Inquiry List (Sep 2005 – Feb 2006)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140927032017/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/thread.html#3066
* http://web.archive.org/web/20150224132601/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/thread.html#3070
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152003/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/thread.html#3263
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120512004315/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3276
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120428203612/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2006-February/thread.html#3366
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927032227/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003066.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140927032200/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-September/003067.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20150224132513/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003070.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930212839/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003071.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20120204201416/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003073.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20120206122908/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003074.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20120204201721/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003087.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20150224132436/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003091.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20150224132419/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003117.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152611/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003263.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140930152637/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003269.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233936/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003276.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232908/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2006-February/003366.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232911/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2006-February/003367.html
===NEKS. New Elements • Kaina Stoicheia • Discussion History===
'''Inquiry List (Dec 2005)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120512004315/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/thread.html#3272
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234010/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003272.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234040/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003282.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233753/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003296.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234050/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003297.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233848/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003298.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233659/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003299.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233721/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003300.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234152/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003301.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233802/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003302.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013234055/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003303.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233903/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-December/003304.html
===OLOD. Quine On The Limits Of Decision • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Sep 2003)'''
# http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05124.html
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120505135759/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/thread.html#791
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001340/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000791.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014000951/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000853.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061014001355/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-September/000854.html
'''Ontology List (Sep 2003)'''
# http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-October/000905.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070304201252/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd9.html#05037
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035906/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05037.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219035951/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05095.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070219040008/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05096.html
===Critical Reflection On Method : Discussion===
===POLA. Philosophy Of Logical Atomism • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003)'''
# http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11278.html
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#674
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182153/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000674.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182157/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000675.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182137/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000679.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182233/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000685.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182238/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000686.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182245/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000688.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182249/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000689.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182253/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000690.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203820/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000691.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203828/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000693.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203833/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000694.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203836/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000695.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203844/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000697.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203848/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000698.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203852/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000699.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203856/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000700.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203900/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000701.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203928/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000709.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203932/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000710.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051339/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000745.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051343/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000746.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051347/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000747.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051351/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000748.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051355/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000749.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20051215123628/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000750.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141737/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000751.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141709/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000752.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141717/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000756.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141837/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000757.html
'''Ontology List (Aug 2003)'''
# http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05123.html
* http://web.archive.org/web/20080907150744/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd11.html#04939
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080502102247/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04939.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080502073506/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04940.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080621104338/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04944.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115257/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04945.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115309/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04946.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115323/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04947.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115333/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04948.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115343/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04949.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115353/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04950.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115404/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04951.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115413/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04952.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003408/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04953.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080409021341/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04954.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080622160902/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04955.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080409021347/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04956.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003451/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04957.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003503/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04958.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003513/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04959.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003523/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04960.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003535/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04995.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003545/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04996.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003557/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04997.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003605/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04998.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003616/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04999.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003626/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05000.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003636/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05001.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003700/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05002.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003710/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05006.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070305003719/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05007.html
====Inquiry List====
===POLA. Philosophy Of Logical Atomism • Discussion History===
'''Ontology List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140405160400/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd11.html#04941
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080621104325/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04941.html
====Ontology List====
===RTOK. Russell's Theory Of Knowledge • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#758
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141725/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000758.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141628/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000759.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141729/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000760.html
'''Ontology List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070305021905/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd10.html#05008
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306151622/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05008.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070324073231/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05009.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070324073241/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05010.html
====Ontology List====
===RTOP. Russell's Treatise On Propositions • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#761
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141603/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000761.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040906141807/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000762.html
'''Ontology List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070305021905/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd10.html#05011
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070328165409/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05011.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070316003836/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05012.html
====SUO List====
===SABI. Synthetic/Analytic ≟ Boundary/Interior • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#773
# http://web.archive.org/web/20040907185623/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000773.html
'''Ontology List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070305021905/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd10.html#05024
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050824071512/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg05024.html
====SUO List====
===SYNF. Syntactic Fallacy • Document History===
* http://web.archive.org/web/20050508214427/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd53.html#10471
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070302141236/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10471.html
# http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11236.html -- Rhematic Saturation
# http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg11237.html -- Relational Turn
====Ontology List====
===TDOE. Two Dogmas Of Empiricism • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Jul 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012822/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/thread.html#631
# http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233112/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000631.html
* Background for Analyticity
<ol>
<li value="2">http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233132/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000638.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233212/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000639.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233048/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000640.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233020/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000641.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232930/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000642.html</li>
</ol>
* Definition
<ol>
<li value="7">http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232959/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000643.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233215/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000644.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233054/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000645.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232914/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000646.html</li>
</ol>
* Interchangeability
<ol>
<li value="11">http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232955/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000647.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233149/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000648.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233139/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000649.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233115/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000650.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233119/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000651.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233219/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000652.html</li>
</ol>
* Semantical Rules
===HAPA. Hypostatic And Prescisive Abstraction 2 : Discussion===
<ol>
<li value="17">http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233129/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000653.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232943/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000654.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233201/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000655.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232947/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000656.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233013/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000657.html</li>
</ol>
* The Verification Theory and Reductionism
<ol>
<li value="22">http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233009/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000658.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232933/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000659.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233005/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000660.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233233/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000661.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233034/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000662.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233122/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000663.html</li>
</ol>
* Empiricism without the Dogmas
<ol>
<li value="28">http://web.archive.org/web/20061013232923/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000664.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233146/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000665.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233136/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000666.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20061013233104/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-July/000667.html</li>
</ol>
The above material is excerpted from:
* W.V. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”, ''Philosophical Review'', January 1951.<br>Reprinted, W.V. Quine, ''From a Logical Point of View'', 2nd edition, pp. 20–46,<br>Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
'''Ontology List (Jul 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20070302144432/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd12.html#04902
# http://web.archive.org/web/20080411140946/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04902.html
* Background for Analyticity
<ol>
<li value="2">http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210042/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04909.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210052/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04910.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210102/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04911.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210112/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04912.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210122/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04913.html</li>
</ol>
* Definition
<ol>
</pre>
<li value="7">http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210132/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04914.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210143/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04915.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210153/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04916.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210203/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04917.html</li>
</ol>
* Interchangeability
<pre>
<ol>
<li value="11">http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210214/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04918.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210223/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04919.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210234/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04920.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304181104/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04921.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210244/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04922.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210310/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04923.html</li>
</ol>
* Semantical Rules
<ol>
<li value="17">http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210321/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04924.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210332/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04925.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210350/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04926.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210401/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04927.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210411/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04928.html</li>
</ol>
* The Verification Theory and Reductionism
<ol>
<li value="22">http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210423/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04929.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210431/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04930.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070305022135/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04931.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210441/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04932.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20070304210451/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04933.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20080419061751/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04934.html</li>
</ol>
* Empiricism without the Dogmas
<ol>
<li value="28">http://web.archive.org/web/20080411152023/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04935.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20080411152028/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04936.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20080411152033/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04937.html</li>
<li>http://web.archive.org/web/20080622160852/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04938.html</li>
</ol>
The above material is excerpted from:
The above material is excerpted from:
* W.V. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”, ''Philosophical Review'', January 1951.<br>Reprinted, W.V. Quine, ''From a Logical Point of View'', 2nd edition, pp. 20–46,<br>Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
===VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories • Document History===
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#713
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084828/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000713.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084836/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000715.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084849/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000718.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084900/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000721.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051255/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000733.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051259/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000734.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000735.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051307/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000736.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051311/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000737.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051315/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000738.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051243/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000739.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051319/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000740.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051323/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000741.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051327/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000742.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051331/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000743.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050331051335/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000744.html
'''Ontology List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140405160400/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd11.html#04963
* http://web.archive.org/web/20140405160400/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/thrd11.html#04966
# http://web.archive.org/web/20140405161010/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04963.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306133936/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04964.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134007/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04966.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134036/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04969.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306132756/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04981.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134251/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04982.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134301/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04983.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134313/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04984.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134343/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04986.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134353/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04987.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134406/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04989.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134422/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04990.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134433/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04991.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134443/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04992.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306134454/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04993.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306115437/http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg04994.html
===VOLS. Verities Of Likely Stories===
===VOOP. Varieties Of Ontology Project • Document History===
* http://web.archive.org/web/20130306201805/http://suo.ieee.org/email/mail59.html#10759
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070302142211/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10759.html
===VORE. Varieties Of Recalcitrant Experience • Document History===
Inquiry List
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#668
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050324203753/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000668.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050324203757/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000669.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182141/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000671.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182145/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000672.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182205/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000677.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182209/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000678.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182213/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000680.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182217/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000681.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182221/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000682.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182229/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000683.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182225/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000684.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182241/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000687.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203824/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000692.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203841/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000696.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050326203924/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000708.html
'''SUO List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20050508214427/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd53.html#10497
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306110551/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10497.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310134749/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10498.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310135842/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10501.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310135852/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10503.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070309010913/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10513.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070309010923/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10515.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310135943/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10520.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310113310/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10521.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310113529/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10522.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070309010933/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10524.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070309010944/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10526.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070309010953/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10533.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310140027/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10539.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070309011003/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10540.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070309011016/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10545.html
===VORE. Varieties Of Recalcitrant Experience • Application History===
'''Inquiry List (Aug 2003)'''
* http://web.archive.org/web/20120518012303/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/thread.html#670
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050324203802/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000670.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182149/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000673.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050325182201/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000676.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20050330084856/http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-August/000720.html
'''SUO List (Aug 2003)'''
SUO List
* http://web.archive.org/web/20050508214427/http://suo.ieee.org/email/thrd53.html#10499
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310134759/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10499.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070313223944/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10504.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070310135902/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10512.html
# http://web.archive.org/web/20070306164806/http://suo.ieee.org/email/msg10556.html