Or how numbers are even possible from a philosophical point of view. — Frege and the foundations of arithmetic Frege’s most philosophical work is, arguably, The Foundations of Arithmethic (1884, 1903), which is where he relates his efforts to logicize, or cantorize, arithmetic to the ideas of other important authors such as Mill, Kant, and Leibniz (which is very audacious). Kenny says that before the publication of The Foundations…

Knowledge is only possible when we reach the number 2. —

Mutable and immutable systems, and the differences between Platonic completeness and pragmatic completeness. —

On the possibility of randomness in physics — Says Martin Gardner, ‘ new and powerful paradox has come to light.’ This is the opening sentence of a mind-twisting article by Michael Scriven that appeared in the July 1951 issue of the British philosophical journal Mind. Scriven, who bears the title of “professor of the logic of science” at…

Let scholars read, mention and access your Medium stories. — A Few Interesting Facts About Academia.edu Academia.edu has more than 71 million users, and it helps you share your scientific research instantly to a wide public, and you can also follow other academics in your field, journals. Most critics on the internet say Academia.edu is a for-profit organization, which may lead to “pay-to-be-read” behavior, but it’s…

British logical empiricism versus German historical idealism. — Why am I calling Russell a logical empiricist? According to Russell, (…) the chief reason in favor of any theory on the principles of mathematics must always be inductive, i.e. it must lie in the fact that the theory in question enables us to deduce ordinary mathematics (RUSSELL and WHITEHEAD, 1910, p.128). From all the mathematics produced so…

Lessons from a retired spy, from Alexis de Tocquenville and from a 21st century philosophy teacher. —

According to Wittgenstein, if lions spoke we wouldn’t understand them — Introduction Imagine there is a robot, an Android, that is your “perfect” double. A robotic copy of you. Although you two may seem very similar, both would function in quite different ways. Society would possibly judge and treat both differently. …