'For the person or persons that hold dominion, can no more combine with the keeping up of majesty the running with harlots drunk or naked about the streets, or the performances of a stage player, or the open violation or contempt of laws passed by themselves than they can combine existence with non-existence'.

- Benedict de Spinoza. Political Treatise. 1677.




Monday, December 15, 2014

Philosophical Grammar 84


84. The role of a proposition in the calculus is its sense.

It is only in language that something is a proposition. To understand a proposition is to understand a language.



a proposition is a proposal – open to question – open to doubt – uncertain

a proposition – in or out of a calculus – is an expression of uncertainty

if we are talking of the sense of a proposition – we are talking about that which is open to question open to doubt – is uncertain

what is to count as a proposal – as a proposition – is open to question – open to doubt

I for one have a broad view – I say anything that is held open to question – open to doubt – is a proposal – is a proposition

here I include – of course language – but also anything that human beings create – and I think nature itself –

to understand a language – in a logical sense – is to recognize it as an expression of uncertainty



© greg t. charlton. 2014.