Alex (Sasha) > Recent Status Updates

"Augustine, led astray by the fact that the word 'time' is a noun, looked for the object signified by it, as if he had to find a hidden fluid, a substance which flows through all temporality."

…The funny thing is, actually, that after posting my previous update and then going back to the book, it suddenly became clear to me that the cited result of Skolem is *not* his theorem with Löwenheim, but is actually his later proof of the existence of non-standard models of arithmetic. I learned a lot on my detour, though, so I'm not upset about it. :P

Stalled on this for a while because it offhandedly mentions the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem in a footnote and I was too stubborn to keep going until I had a good grasp of what that was, but Greg Restall has a good video on it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-iTL... so I'm back.

Waismann is in the habit of giving a perfectly adequate explanation of a concept in one or two paragraphs and then spending a dozen pages elaborating on the implications of it and painstakingly refuting every objection to it he can imagine. This is useful for self-study, and makes the pages fly by quickly, but also gets rather dull; this is the first philosophy book I've ever wished were denser.

"If I had to take sides in this question I would rather be with those who attack our beliefs than with those who defend. For to forbid a question is not to liquidate it. […] For an appeal to belief is only an exhortation to suppress the doubts which perplex us."

rather uncomfortable with the author's choice to give a detailed description of his experience caring for a disabled woman, including irrelevant and potentially identifying details about the circumstances of her injury and the place she was living when he worked for her, as "the most disgusted [he has] ever been"