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(Variations on a Logical Theme)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
The form of this paper is unconventional. Just as composers sometimes want a change from the traditional sonata form and write a movement in the form of theme and variations, so I would like to depart from the orthodox form of philosophical paper, which contains a closely reasoned discussion of some particular problem, by stating a theme which will be a principle of pure logic, then sketching a number of applications of it in different areas of philosophy. But the variations on my theme will not be entirely disconnected with each other, for I suspect that it is a theme which could have especially important applications in philosophical theology. So my later variations on it will be increasingly oriented to concepts of God, and I will close with a coda which will consist of some controversial remarks about the controversial concept of transcendence.
page 89 note 2 A delightful example used by Professor P. T. Geach.
page 91 note 1 It is one of the great advantages of the modem logic of quantifiers (invented by Frege) over the traditional logic of Aristotle, that it makes this distinction.
page 92 note 1 Further development is done by Kirwan, C., in Mind, October 1968.Google Scholar
page 92 note 2 Variations on this thought are to be found in Leibniz, , e.g. Philosophical Writings (Everyman Edition), p. 53, 67–8Google Scholar, 148; and also in Pascal, , Pensées (Penguin edition), p. 91.Google Scholar
page 93 note 1 Locke, , Essay Concerning Human Understanding, III. 3. 15ff. and III. 6. 1ff.Google Scholar
page 93 note 2 One of the unclarities is how truths can be individuated and counted.
page 93 note 3 Aquinas, St Thomas, Summa Theologica, I–IGoogle Scholar, Q.2, Art.3.
page 94 note 1 This conception of science has been attractively propounded by R. Harré.
page 95 note 1 This is one of the main themes in the section of The Critique of Pure Reason entitled ‘Transcendental Dialectic’, e.g. B365, B671ff.
page 95 note 2 The Bounds of Sense, p. 36 and p. 159.
page 95 note 3 Aquinas, , Summa Theologica, I–IGoogle Scholar, Q. 2, Art. 3; Descartes, , Meditations on the First Philosophy, Meditation III.Google Scholar
page 95 note 4 Aristotle, , Nichomachean Ethics, Bk. I, Ch. IGoogle Scholar; Aquinas, , op. cit., I–II, Q. 1, Art. 4–7, I–I, Q. 2, Art. 3.Google Scholar
page 96 note 1 This argument can be found in Pascal, , Pensées, p. 75 (Penguin edition)Google Scholar and in a modern catechism for adults recently produced by the Dutch Roman Catholics (A New Catechism; p. 12–13, 237–8).
page 96 note 2 Strawson, , The Bounds of Sense, p. 37 and p. 222.Google Scholar
page 97 note 1 I am, obviously, assuming this philosophical rejection of transcendence, rather than arguing for it here.