[lit-ideas] Re: Must the Word be Literate?
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 13:24:19 +0100 (BST)
--- Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Leibniz did claim that what to us appear to be contingent statements are
> really analytic, although only God can perform the 'infinite analysis'
> needed to show this. (It isn't a matter of grasping premises, but of
> seeing how predicates are contained in subjects.)
>
> Donal asks why this should be so?why all propositions should be
> analytic. The answer is that there can be no 'looseness' in the world:
> God has chosen this world from an infinite number of other possible ones
> because it is the world compatible with the most perfection; in choosing
> it he didn't choose 'just any Adam,' e.g., but the one who ate the
> apple, etc., for this Adam best fits with everything else?every rock and
> every toadstool, every mouse and every man. And so with the rocks and
> toadstools. God acted of necessity (theological quibbles about God's
> free choice are taken up on other lists). God does nothing without a
> reason, as Einstein too believed. Every aspect of the world is as it is
> of necessity. At bottom, things could not be otherwise.
This is not a very good argument: and should perhaps read "An answer might
be.." rather than "The answer is..".
1) Why assume there is no looseness in the world i.e. assume determinism?
2) Why if things are "of necessity" should that perforce be analytic or
logical necessity - why not physical necessity [i.e. things are as they are
because of physical laws] or psychological necessity [[i.e thoughts are as
they are because of psychological laws]? [Physical laws may be logically
contingent but that does not mean they are physically contingent; conversely
logical necessity explains very little of what exists if we accept that very
little of what exists exists by reason of logical necessity.
3) Why should logical necessity be 'analytic' in that the truth of a
proposition is implicit in the definition of the term from which it is
supposedly derived? [This question may be badly put].
Donal
___________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it
now.
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
