Comments on: What is the Single Worst Understood Philosophical Concept? http://www.noahgreenstein.com/wordpress/2009/05/16/what-is-the-single-worst-understood-philosophical-concept/ Argument or GTFO Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:46:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: nogre http://www.noahgreenstein.com/wordpress/2009/05/16/what-is-the-single-worst-understood-philosophical-concept/comment-page-1/#comment-1145 nogre Mon, 18 May 2009 17:36:42 +0000 http://noahgreenstein.com/wordpress/?p=1007#comment-1145 Agreed. It's very hard to connect subtle logical issues to everyday ones. If I tell you that De Morgan's 1847 discovery that it was (near?) impossible to prove that 'All heads of horses are heads of animals' from 'All horses are animals' given the logic of the day was Earth-shaking and go on to mention how Frege's theory of logical quantification solved this problem, there is no way I can really expect someone without at least some history of philosophy to even appreciate why this is important. But imagine me waving my hands very vigorously to indicate that this is very important. Agreed. It’s very hard to connect subtle logical issues to everyday ones.

If I tell you that De Morgan’s 1847 discovery that it was (near?) impossible to prove that ‘All heads of horses are heads of animals’ from ‘All horses are animals’ given the logic of the day was Earth-shaking and go on to mention how Frege’s theory of logical quantification solved this problem, there is no way I can really expect someone without at least some history of philosophy to even appreciate why this is important.

But imagine me waving my hands very vigorously to indicate that this is very important.

]]> By: Josh Klein http://www.noahgreenstein.com/wordpress/2009/05/16/what-is-the-single-worst-understood-philosophical-concept/comment-page-1/#comment-1146 Josh Klein Mon, 18 May 2009 15:06:11 +0000 http://noahgreenstein.com/wordpress/?p=1007#comment-1146 I don't think the general public understands why it's important to ask/answer some of the more convoluted questions of logic, epistomology, and so one. People seem fairly content to leave it to hand waving. I don’t think the general public understands why it’s important to ask/answer some of the more convoluted questions of logic, epistomology, and so one. People seem fairly content to leave it to hand waving.

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