andrewk

Wasn't it recognised several pages earlier that those insisting that there is a clear distinction between the terms 'Actual Infinity' and 'Potential I...

The word "Collection" has an important role in mathematical history because it, along with the alternative "class", was proposed as a name for a group...

It can't be all that obvious, since so many mathematicians and scientists have failed to observe the contradiction, and some of them have been reputed...

Interestingly, addition and multiplication of real numbers, of rational numbers, and of integers, are also all different from the addition and multipl...

A wise decision!

Better to focus on audible names, rather than spoken names, in order to transcend the limitations of the human larynx. Audible names need not be count...

Ah, yes - the mantra of commitment-phobes around the world, and fodder for countless movies about indecisive singles driving their would-be-spouse spa...

That's an interesting idea. If I'm reading you correctly, you're suggesting that there is some point in the universe, call it C (for centre), such tha...

Amen, comrade! The only exception that I find worth making is when the link is not to an argument but to statistics that are hosted on the site of a c...

That is a misuse of the word 'so'. The word is used after a deduction has been presented, to state the result of the deduction. It is invalid to use i...

The being could be on any integer if they have counted all the negative integers up to the one they are now on. The usual objection to that is to ask ...

It is as easy to justify choosing a religion as it is to justify choosing a spouse, a football team, a place to live, a political philosophy or a job....

Are you aware that denying the actual infinite involves committing to one or the other of the following two propositions? 1. If we travelled far enoug...

I see. With the references to 'potential' and 'actual', I see what Sophisticat meant about your view appearing to be based in an Aristotelian metaphys...

I am not familiar with that proposition. What does it mean? And why do you feel the absence of an unrestricted PSR is inconsistent with it?

I don't disagree, but I still can't see any support for the idea that a view of the world that does not incorporate an unrestricted PSR would be logic...

I agree, and that is in line with your OP. However my comment about the position of writers was in response not to the OP but to this post that quotes...

If the comment was not made in the context of a formal system, what was the meaning of the statement that the world would be inconsistent without an u...

I think that may still be the case. There are still plenty of Writer's Festivals around the world, where lots of people turn up just to hear authors t...

Surely PSR is about completeness, not consistency. Removing axioms from a consistent system cannot make it inconsistent. So if a system including PSR ...

Would I be correct in assuming that this is a humorous, self-deprecating self-reference? Surely, if there is such a thing as a chattering class, there...

Little did he know that, only seven years later, a publishing phenomenon was about to explode upon the world that eclipsed any literary sensation seen...

I am so sorry to hear that. It must have been really distressing growing up under that influence. It's probably no consolation to say this, but it may...

I don't recall ignoring any particular example, but it is possible I missed it. Which example do you see as most important to discuss?

I have done both. Unfortunately, it looks like further discussion on this interesting topic will not happen.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel that way. Nevertheless, if you want to put forward an argument on the subject matter itself, I will be happy to engage...

In some cases yes. Whether we can do it in an individual case depends on whether we can specify a mechanism. An unsatisfying mechanism that may always...

Ask not what is the purpose of religion, but what purpose each individual has in practising their religion. The answers will vary widely between indiv...

It's just that if one were to try to pick out an individual by printing out the decimal places one by one, one would never be finished picking it out,...

No.

No

Then we could refer to an uncountable number of individuals using sequences of just one letter. Whether that entails that we can use it to refer to al...

No.

Yes. It is readily proven that for any positive integer n, there is only a countable number of different n-tuples from a countable alphabet. One prove...

One wouldn't have to wait an infinite time for that, if we know that the reference is to one or the other, because two different infinite strings must...

Then most of them cannot be referred to individually. Only a countable number of objects can be referred to individually, because there is only a coun...

If the alphabet is countable and names are required to be finite, then the set of all names is countable. If either of those is not the case, the set ...

I have the feeling that this situation of indeterminate references is much more common that one might think. Most speech contains shortcuts and omissi...

Not quite. My claim is that if they said that because they believed Godel did the Incompleteness Theorems and that's all they knew about Godel then th...

If that is Kripke's point than he has a very strange idea of how humans communicate. If Schmidt wrote the theorems and the speaker doesn't know that a...

Yes. Let's focus on one of Kripke's examples - the Godel-Schmidt one. His objection appears to be that the definite description 'Godel' in the sentenc...

Are you referring to the link above to https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/211811? That link is to a series of examples of how one would...

The question 'what do the words "Donald Trump" mean' is malformed, because meaning depends on context. A coherent version of the question would be 'to...

I'm afraid I'm still not seeing how Kripke's approach aids understanding of the use of language in those linked examples. They are all readily explain...

Can you provide an example where Kripkean analysis helps to understand a speech act in a useful way, that is not available by a different approach, in...

I am glad the discussion has turned to Kripke, because that's the element of this subject area that I find most mystifying of all. There is no doubt t...

This immediately makes me think of Australia's new PM's making loud noises about the need to legislate religious freedom. Under questioning he's been ...

That is exactly my approach. To say that something is possible or necessary without relating the statement to the reference set S is to say nothing at...

What do you think about the points in the argument you quoted where God demands obedience? It seems to me that believing that is very problematic beca...

I am open to persuasion, as some clever people have spent a lot of time on possible worlds and modal logic, and I'm reluctant to believe that lots of ...