Logic quotes
From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
- 1 Herbert_George_Andrewartha
- 2 Aristotle
- 3 Reinout_Willem_van_Bemmelen
- 4 William_Ian_Beardmore_Beveridge
- 5 Robert_N_Britcher
- 6 Rudolf_Carnap
- 7 Gordon_Glegg
- 8 Douglas_Hofstadter
- 9 Brooks_Jackson and Kathleen_Hall_Jamieson
- 10 Carl_Jung
- 11 Daniel_Kahneman
- 12 Bernardo_Kastrup
- 13 David_Kipping
- 14 Lawrence_M_Krauss
- 15 Robert_K_Merton
- 16 John_Stuart_Mill
- 17 John_von_Neumann
- 18 Alan_Perlis
- 19 Steven_Pinker
- 20 Karl_Popper
- 21 James_Randi
- 22 Bertrand_Russell
- 23 Baruch_Spinoza
- 24 Alfred_Tarski
- 25 Alfred_North_Whitehead
- 26 Shoshana_Zuboff
Herbert_George_Andrewartha
Model Making
“Model-making, the imaginative and logical steps which precede the experiment, may be judged the most valuable part of the scientific method because skill and insight in these matters are rare. Without them, we do not know what experiment to do. But it is the experiment which provides the raw material for scientific theory. Scientific theory cannot be built directly from the conclusions of conceptual models.”
- Source: Herbert George Andrewartha, Introduction to the Study of Animal Population (1961), 181.
- Keywords: Model_quotes Experiment_quotes Creativity_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Theory_quotes Make_quotes Imagination_quotes Logic_quotes Valuable_quotes Skill_quotes Insight_quotes Rare_quotes Knowledge_quotes Provide_quotes Raw_quotes Material_quotes Science_quotes Direct_quotes Conclusion_quotes Conceptual_quotes
Aristotle
What Is
“To say that what is is not, or that what is not is, is false. And say that what is is, or that what is not is not, is true.”
- Source: Aristotle, ‘Metaphysics’, 4.7. Circa 350 BCE.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Logic_quotes Say_quotes False_quotes True_quotes
Reinout_Willem_van_Bemmelen
Validity of Hypothesis
“The functional validity of a working hypothesis is not a priori certain, because often it is initially based on intuition. However, logical deductions from such a hypothesis provide expectations (so-called prognoses) as to the circumstances under which certain phenomena will appear in nature. Such a postulate or working hypothesis can then be substantiated by additional observations ... The author calls such expectations and additional observations the prognosis-diagnosis method of research. Prognosis in science may be termed the prediction of the future finding of corroborative evidence of certain features or phenomena (diagnostic facts). This method of scientific research builds up and extends the relations between the subject and the object by means of a circuit of inductions and deductions.”
- Source: Reinout Willem van Bemmelen. In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 454-5.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Hypothesis_quotes Certainty_quotes Validity_quotes Intuition_quotes Logic_quotes Deduction_quotes Expectation_quotes Nature_quotes Observation_quotes Confirmation_quotes Prognosis_quotes Diagnosis_quotes Induction_quotes Science_quotes Research_quotes Subject_quotes Object_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Functional_quotes Work_quotes Provide_quotes Circumstance_quotes Method_quotes Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Corroborate_quotes Evidence_quotes Feature_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Build_quotes Extend_quotes Relation_quotes Circuit_quotes
William_Ian_Beardmore_Beveridge
Clues and Evidence
“While playing the part of the detective the investigator follows clues, but having captured his alleged fact, he turns judge and examines the case by means of logically arranged evidence. Both functions are equally essential but they are different.”
- Source: W. I. B. Beveridge in his book ‘In The Art of Scientific Investigation’ published in 1950 and 1957, page 92.
- See Also:
Robert_N_Britcher
Testing Large Systems
“Many programmers do an adequate job of testing the logic of a single module. But testing an entire system is another matter. Once a module is absorbed into the mass of programs, running as part of the real world, the nature of testing changes.”
- Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 57.
Complexity of Loops
“... within a procedure, fascinating problems exist - for example, verifying the correctness of a loop, one of the most complex structures in logic.”
- Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 112.
Rudolf_Carnap
System of Statements
"Science is a system of statements based on direct experience, and controlled by experimental verification. Verification in science is not, however, of single statements but of the entire system or a sub-system of such statements."
- Source: Rudolf Carnap, The Unity of Science (1934), trans. Max Black, 42.
Gordon_Glegg
Realms of the Design Mind
“The mind of the designer has three realms of activity... the inventive, the artistic, and the logical or rational.”
- Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 2, page 18.
- Keywords: Mind_quotes Design_quotes Realm_quotes Activity_quotes Invention_quotes Art_quotes Logic_quotes Rational_quotes
Douglas_Hofstadter
Art Of Deciding Truth
“My feeling is that the process by which we decide what is valid or what is true is an art; and that it relies as deeply on a sense of beauty and simplicity as it does on rock-solid principles of logic or reasoning or anything else which can be objectively formalized.”
- Source: Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979). Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Basic Books, New York, NY. ISBN 13: 978-046502656-2. ISBN 10: 046502656-7. Chapter 20. Page 695.
Brooks_Jackson and Kathleen_Hall_Jamieson
Fact Driven
“Humans are not by nature the fact-driven, rational beings we like to think we are. We get the facts wrong more often than we think we do. And we do so in predictable ways: we engage in wishful thinking. We embrace information that supports our beliefs and reject evidence that challenges them. Our minds tend to take shortcuts, which require some effort to avoid ... [and] more often than most of us would imagine, the human mind operates in ways that defy logic.”
- Source: Brooks Jackson, As co-author with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, in unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation (2007), 69.
- Keywords: Humanity_quotes Nature_quotes Fact_quotes Reason_quotes Wrong_quotes Bias_quotes Prediction_quotes Thinking_quotes Wish_quotes Information_quotes Belief_quotes Rejection_quotes Evidence_quotes Challenge_quotes Mind_quotes Shortcut_quotes Effort_quotes Avoidance_quotes Imagination_quotes Logic_quotes Support_quotes
Carl_Jung
Insoluble Problems
“I always worked with the temperamental conviction that fundamentally there are no insoluble problems, and experience justified me in so far as I have often seen individuals simply outgrow a problem which had destroyed others. This ‘outgrowing’, as I formerly called it, on further experience was seen to consist in a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest arose on the person's horizon, and through this widening of his view the insoluble problem lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own terms, but faded out when confronted with a new and stronger life-tendency. It was not repressed and made unconscious, but merely appeared in a different light, and so did indeed become different. What, on a lower level, had led to the wildest conflicts and to panicky outbursts of emotion, viewed from the higher level of the personality, now seemed like a storm in the valley seen from a high mountain-top. This does not mean that the thunderstorm is robbed of its reality, but instead of being in it, one is now above it. However, since we are both valley and mountain with respect to the psyche, it might seem a vain illusion to feel oneself beyond what is human. One certainly does feel the affect and is shaken and tormented by it, yet at the same time one is aware of a higher consciousness, which prevents one from becoming identical with the affect, a consciousness which takes the affect objectively, and can say, Ί know that I suffer'.”
- Source: Carl Jung, Commentary by Jung on 'The Secret of the Golden Flower'. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com
/mobile/doc /58044038 /Commentary -by-Jung -on-The- Secret -of-the- Golden -Flower.
- Keywords: Conviction_quotes Insoluble_quotes Problem_quotes Experience_quotes Justification_quotes Individual_quotes Growth_quotes Destruction_quotes Consciousness_quotes Interest_quotes Horizon_quotes View_quotes Urgent_quotes Solution_quotes Logic_quotes Life_quotes Repression_quotes Unconscious_quotes Light_quotes Differences_quotes Level_quotes Conflict_quotes Wild_quotes Panic_quotes Emotion_quotes Personality_quotes Storm_quotes Valley_quotes Mountain_quotes Reality_quotes Objectivity_quotes Illusion_quotes Humanity_quotes Torment_quotes Identical_quotes Suffering_quotes
Daniel_Kahneman
World Sense
“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.”
- Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow. 2011; ISBN 9780374275631.
- Keywords: Comfort_quotes Conviction_quotes World_quotes Logic_quotes Foundation_quotes Unlimited_quotes Ability_quotes Ignorance_quotes Sense_quotes
Bernardo_Kastrup
Inverting Materialism
“Here we have Jung completely inverting the logic of mainstream materialism: it’s the psychic function that creates, maintains, and modifies the organic structure, not the other way around.”
- Source: From “Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe”. Written by Bernardo Kastrup. Published by IFF Books, Washington DC. Kindle Edition. Page 78. Chapter 5.
David_Kipping
Simulation Experiments
“The simulation argument might be able to resist our physical experiments but is not able to escape our mathematical and logical reasoning.”
- Source: David Kipping from the YouTube “Why You're Probably Not a Simulation”, posted 2020-09-04 in the channel ‘Cool Worlds’. Video offset 32:36. Online at https://youtu.be/HA5YuwvJkpQ (2025).
Lawrence_M_Krauss
Think the Unthinkable
“Science has taught us to think the unthinkable. Because when nature is the guide—rather than a priori prejudices, hopes, fears or desires — we are forced out of our comfort zone. One by one, pillars of classical logic have fallen by the wayside as science progressed in the 20th century, from Einstein's realization that measurements of space and time were not absolute but observer-dependent, to quantum mechanics, which not only put fundamental limits on what we can empirically know but also demonstrated that elementary particles and the atoms they form are doing a million seemingly impossible things at once.”
- Source: Lawrence M. Krauss, In op-ed, 'A Universe Without Purpose', Los Angeles Times (1 Apr 2012).
- Keywords: Science_quotes Thinking_quotes Unthinkable_quotes Nature_quotes Guide_quotes A_Priori_quotes Hope_quotes Fear_quotes Desire_quotes Force_quotes Comfort_quotes Pillar_quotes Logic_quotes Fall_quotes Progress_quotes Measurement_quotes Realization_quotes Space_quotes Time_quotes Absolute_quotes Observation_quotes Dependence_quotes Quantum_quotes Mechanics_quotes Fundamental_quotes Limitation_quotes Empirical_quotes Demonstration_quotes Elementary_quotes Particle_quotes Atom_quotes Impossibility_quotes Concurrent_quotes Teach_quotes Prejudice_quotes Classical_quotes Einstein(topic)_quotes Know_quotes
Robert_K_Merton
Certified Knowledge
”The institutional goal of science is the extension of certified knowledge. The technical methods employed toward this end provide the relevant definition of knowledge: empirically confirmed and logically consistent predictions. The institutional imperatives (mores) derive from the goal and the methods. The entire structure of technical and moral norms implements the final objective. The technical norm of empirical evidence, adequate, valid and reliable, is a prerequisite for sustained true prediction; the technical norm of logical consistency, a prerequisite for systematic and valid prediction. The mores of science possess a methodologic rationale, but they are binding, not only because they are procedurally efficient, but because they are believed right and good. They are moral as well as technical prescriptions. Four sets of institutional imperatives – universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized skepticism – comprise the ethos of modern science.”
- Source: Robert King Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (1957), 552-3.
- Keywords: Institution_quotes Goal_quotes Science_quotes Extension_quotes Certified_quotes Knowledge_quotes Technology_quotes Methodology_quotes Employment_quotes End_quotes Relevance_quotes Definition_quotes Empirical_quotes Confirmation_quotes Logic_quotes Consistency_quotes Prediction_quotes Imperative_quotes Derive_quotes Structure_quotes Morality_quotes Norms_quotes Implementation_quotes Final_quotes Objectives_quotes Evidence_quotes Adequate_quotes Validity_quotes Reliability_quotes Prerequisite_quotes Sustain_quotes Truth_quotes System_quotes Rational_quotes Mores_quotes Bind_quotes Procedure_quotes Efficiency_quotes Belief_quotes Right_quotes Good_quotes Prescription_quotes Universalism_quotes Communism_quotes Disinterest_quotes Skeptical_quotes Composition_quotes Ethos_quotes Modern_quotes
John_Stuart_Mill
Knowledge and Logic
“The distinction is that the science or knowledge of the particular subject-matter furnishes the evidence, while logic furnishes the principles and rules of the estimation of evidence.”
- Source: John Stuart Mill, In A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation (1843), Vol. 1, 11.
John_von_Neumann
Language Historical
“It is only proper to realize that language is largely a historical accident... It is only reasonable to assume that logics and mathematics are similarly historical, accidental forms of expression.”
- Source: John von Neumann. (1958). The Computer and the Brain (1st ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Part 2, page 81.
- Keywords: Language_quotes History_quotes Logic_quotes Mathematics_quotes Accident_quotes Expression_quotes Assumption_quotes Form_quotes Reason_quotes
Alan_Perlis
Ingenuity and Analysis
“Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.”
- Source: Perlis, A. J. (1982). Special Feature: Epigrams on programming. ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 17(9), 7–13. http://doi.org/10.1145/947955.1083808
- Keywords: Programmer_quotes Measurement_quotes Ingenuity_quotes Logic_quotes Completion_quotes Case_quotes Analysis_quotes Requirements_quotes
Steven_Pinker
Neurons to Consciousness
“None of us has a brain that can actually put us in touch with reality unaided with truth. I've just shown you a bunch of gadgetry that responds to things that are essential to our survival, things that prevent us from falling off cliffs and bumping into trees. But they don't actually correspond to any clear description of the world as it is. So we have, for example, circuitry that responds to the edges rather than the physical distribution of light, because edges are important, that's where objects leave off and their backgrounds begin. Moreover, they can be fooled, as I did with each one of you. That since our neural circuitry does consist of a mechanism, not a pipeline to the truth or a window onto objective reality. That is naïve realism we know is false because there are illusions. You can't just trust your senses. That means we need some way of augmenting the faculties that nature gave us to make our beliefs as accurate as possible. Which of course is why the early modern philosophers made such a big deal of visual illusions. They said you can't just open your eyes and see the world as it is. Look at all these illusions. So what we do, what gives some of us confidence that our beliefs are objectively true is that they are part of an institutional infrastructure of testing and criticism and logic and determining which hypotheses withstand criticism and attempts at refutation. Devising exotic arrangements of reality to reflect the way reality is put together, namely experiments. Thanks to this huge network of minds, each one of them making up for deficits of all the others, we like to think that we have a collective grasp on truth that none of us individually can have. But of course, it's always fallible. The religious beliefs I think were actually pretty reasonable hypotheses in earlier states of our collective knowledge. Even Richard Dawkins said that before Darwin he probably would have been a creationist because the cosmic engineer was the only available explanation for the obvious adaptive complexity of living things. I would add that prior to the advent of modern neuroscience I probably would have believed in souls because there was no better explanation for phenomena such as that people respond intelligently to their environments. When you dream some part of you is up and about the world while your body is in bed the whole time. That seems like there must be some part of you that can leave your body. When a person suddenly dies some kind of animating force no longer seems to be animating the body that was there just a few minutes ago. So the soul hypothesis is not a stupid or irrational belief, nor is creationism if it's the best that you have. Now, of course, we can do better. But doing better in part depends not just on this cumulative weight of evidence and argument. But because few of us can actually reconstruct the scientific observations that justify the theory of natural selection or the theory of neural networks, all of us, at least a little bit, take it on faith in the following sense; that there is a community that you trust enough because when they have been challenged to defend their beliefs they can connect them to reality. They have shown that it isn't magic. That they have given reason to trust them because they've convinced you that they're the mores of their culture, of their scientific culture, designed so that they will find true things and weed out false things. If you don't have a degree of solidarity or trust, if you think that scientists are all in cahoots with big corporations or are trying to tear down all faith and values and meaning and you simply refuse to follow through the very long chain of deduction that connects the claims to the experiments, then you'll naturally reject it just because it's not your tribe. For you and me scientists are our tribe and we're apt to give them some credibility, indeed some credulousness, knowing that if ever challenged it would be repaid. But unless you trace that through it can be all too easy to reject the conclusions of science, and indeed a number of studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that people believe in falsehoods, such as that vaccines cause autism or that humans were created five thousand years ago or that the burning of fossil fuels has no effect on global temperatures, it turns out that people with those beliefs that we have every reason to believe are false are no more scientifically naïve on average than people that have beliefs that are scientifically justified. You give a test on evolution to a bunch of people who believe in evolution, give it to a bunch of creationists, there's not much difference in how well they score. In fact, often they are equal. Likewise, the typical grasp of climate science among someone who signs on to the scientific consensus is not much better than the adamant deniers. That kind of dashes the hope that simply by increasing the quality of science education you will lead people to more accurate beliefs. There, in addition, has to be a dissociation of who you think are the good guys and who are the bad guys from who has the best claims to truth. That's what it depends on.”
- Source: From the Q&A portion of the lecture From Neurons to Consciousness given by Steven Picker at the New College of the Humanities, 2017. Video available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrVBkxLcqrw&t=4057s (posted 20170309).
- Keywords: Accuracy_quotes Adament_quotes Adaptability_quotes Addition_quotes Advent_quotes Aid_quotes Animate_quotes Argue_quotes Arrangement_quotes Attempt_quotes Augment_quotes Autism_quotes Availability_quotes Background_quotes Bad_quotes Bed_quotes Belief_quotes Best_quotes Big_quotes Body_quotes Brain_quotes Bump_quotes Bunch_quotes Burn_quotes Cahoot_quotes Chain_quotes Challenge_quotes Circuit_quotes Claim_quotes Clear_quotes Cliff_quotes Climate_quotes Collective_quotes Complexity_quotes Common_quotes Community_quotes Conclusion_quotes Confidence_quotes Connection_quotes Consensus_quotes Consist_quotes Contrary_quotes Convince_quotes Cooperation_quotes Corporation_quotes Correspondence_quotes Cosmic_quotes Creationism_quotes Credibility_quotes Criticism_quotes Culture_quotes Cumulative_quotes Dash_quotes Deal_quotes Death_quotes Deception_quotes Deduction_quotes Defence_quotes Deficit_quotes Degree_quotes Deny_quotes Dependence_quotes Description_quotes Design_quotes Determine_quotes Devise_quotes Differences_quotes Dissociation_quotes Distribution_quotes Dreaming_quotes Early_quotes Easy_quotes Edge_quotes Education_quotes Effect_quotes Engineer_quotes Environment_quotes Essential_quotes Evidence_quotes Evolution_quotes Exotic_quotes Experiment_quotes Explanation_quotes Eye_quotes Faculty_quotes Faith_quotes Fall_quotes Fallible_quotes False_quotes Few_quotes Find_quotes Follow_quotes Fool_quotes Force_quotes Fossil_quotes Fuel_quotes Gadget_quotes Global_quotes Good_quotes Grasp_quotes Guy_quotes Huge_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Illusion_quotes Importance_quotes Increasing_quotes Individual_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Institution_quotes Intelligence_quotes Irrational_quotes Justification_quotes Knowledge_quotes Leave_quotes Life_quotes Light_quotes Logic_quotes Long_quotes Magic_quotes Meaning_quotes Mechanism_quotes Mind_quotes Modern_quotes Moral_quotes Naïve_quotes Nature_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Network_quotes Neural_quotes Neuroscience_quotes Object_quotes Objectivity_quotes Observation_quotes Obvious_quotes Part_quotes People_quotes Perception_quotes Phenomena_quotes Philosophy_quotes Physical_quotes Pipeline_quotes Possibility_quotes Prehistoric_quotes Prevent_quotes Reality_quotes Reason_quotes Reconstruct_quotes Reflection_quotes Refuse_quotes Refutation_quotes Rejection_quotes Religion_quotes Repay_quotes Respond_quotes Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Score_quotes Seem_quotes Selection_quotes Sense_quotes Show_quotes Sight_quotes Solidarity_quotes Soul_quotes State_quotes Study_quotes Stupidity_quotes Survival_quotes Tear_quotes Temperature_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Time_quotes Touch_quotes Trace_quotes Tree_quotes Tribal_quotes Trust_quotes Truth_quotes Try_quotes Typical_quotes Unaided_quotes Vaccine_quotes Value_quotes Visual_quotes Weed_quotes Weight_quotes Whole_quotes Window_quotes Withstand_quotes World_quotes
Information and Computation Medium
“Information and computation reside in patterns of data and in relations of logic that are independent of the physical medium that carries them.”
- Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 1 Section Reverse-Engineering the Psyche.
Karl_Popper
Epistemology
“In accordance with my proposal made above, epistemology, or the logic of scientific discovery, should be identified with the theory of scientific method. The theory of method, in so far as it goes beyond the purely logical analysis of the relations between scientific statements, is concerned with the choice of methods — with decisions about the way in which scientific statements are to be dealt with. These decisions will of course depend in their turn upon the aim which we choose from among a number of possible aims. The decision here proposed for laying down suitable rules for what I call the ‘empirical method’ is closely connected with my criterion of demarcation: I propose to adopt such rules as will ensure the testability of scientific statements; which is to say, their falsifiability.”
- Source: Chapter 2. Popper, K. R. (2005). The Logic of Scientific Discovery | 1935 (1935/Epub ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
- Keywords: According_quotes Proposal_quotes Epistemology_quotes Logic_quotes Science_quotes Discovery_quotes Identity_quotes Theory_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Methodology_quotes Beyond_quotes Analysis_quotes Relationship_quotes Statement_quotes Concern_quotes Choice_quotes Decision_quotes Way_quotes Deal_quotes Dependence_quotes Aim_quotes Number_quotes Possibility_quotes Rule_quotes Law_quotes Empirical_quotes Connection_quotes Criteria_quotes Demarcation_quotes Adopt_quotes Ensure_quotes Testing_quotes Testability_quotes Falsification_quotes Pure_quotes
James_Randi
Science Is Best Defined
“Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work.”
- Source: James Randi, The Mask of Nostradamus: The Prophecies of the World's Most Famous Seer (1993), Page 66.
- Keywords: Science_quotes Definition_quotes Careful_quotes Logic_quotes Search_quotes Knowledge_quotes Aspect_quotes Universe_quotes Obtain_quotes Examination_quotes Availability_quotes Evidence_quotes Subject_quotes Correction_quotes Improvement_quotes Discovery_quotes Better_quotes Magic_quotes Work_quotes Discipline_quotes
Bertrand_Russell
Science Ideal
“Science, in its ultimate ideal, consists of a set of propositions arranged in a hierarchy, the lowest level of the hierarchy being concerned with particular facts, and the highest with some general law, governing everything in the universe. The various levels in the hierarchy have a two-fold logical connection, traveling one up, one down; the upward connection proceeds by induction, the downward by deduction.”
- Source: Bertrand Russell, In The Scientific Outlook (1931, 2009), 38.
Pure Mathematics
“Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition is true of that thing. It is essential not to discuss whether the first proposition is really true, and not to mention what the anything is, of which it is supposed to be true. Both these points would belong to applied mathematics. We start, in pure mathematics, from certain rules of inference, by which we can infer that if one proposition is true, then so is some other proposition. These rules of inference constitute the major part of the principles of formal logic. We then take any hypothesis that seems amusing and deduce its consequences. If our hypothesis is about anything, and not about some one or more particular things, then our deductions constitute mathematics. Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true. People who have been puzzled by the beginnings of mathematics will, I hope, find comfort in this definition, and will probably agree that it is accurate.”
- Source: “Recent Work on the Principles of Mathematics”, published in 1901 within International Monthly, Vol. 4. later published as the essay “Mathematics and the Metaphysicians” within the book “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays” by Bertrand Russell published in 1917 by George Allen & Unwin, London, England.
- Keywords: Pure_quotes Mathematics_quotes Consist_quotes Entire_quotes Assertion_quotes Effect_quotes Proposal_quotes True_quotes Essential_quotes Discussion_quotes First_quotes Mention_quotes Suppose_quotes Point_quotes Belong_quotes Application_quotes Certainty_quotes Rule_quotes Inference_quotes Constitute_quotes Major_quotes Part_quotes Principle_quotes Formal_quotes Logic_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Amuse_quotes Deduction_quotes Consequence_quotes Causality_quotes Particular_quotes Definition_quotes Subject_quotes Knowledge_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Talking_quotes Speak_quotes People_quotes Puzzle_quotes Confusion_quotes Begin_quotes Comfort_quotes Accuracy_quotes
Baruch_Spinoza
True and False
“He, who knows how to distinguish between true and false, must have an adequate idea of true and false.”
- Source: A book. Entitled Ethics. Also entitled Ethica. Written by Baruch Spinoza. Originally published 1677. Translated from Latin by R. H. M. Elwes. Part II, Prop. XLII proof. Online at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ethics_(Spinoza).
- Keywords: Epistemology_quotes Logic_quotes Knowledge_quotes Distinguish_quotes True_quotes False_quotes Adequate_quotes Idea_quotes
Alfred_Tarski
Definition of Truth
“Not only does the definition of truth seem to be impossible, but even the consistent use of this concept in conformity with the laws of logic.”
- Source: Alfred Tarski in his article ‘The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages’, written originally in Polish in 1933, translated to English in 1983 by J. H. Woodger and published within the book ‘Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics’ edited by J. Corcoran. Online at http://www.thatmarcusfamily.org/philosophy/Course_Websites/Readings/Tarski%20-%20The%20Concept%20of%20Truth%20in%20Formalized%20Languages.pdf.
- Keywords: Definition_quotes Truth_quotes Seem_quotes Impossible_quotes Consistent_quotes Use_quotes Concept_quotes Conform_quotes Law_quotes Logic_quotes
Language Universality
“This universality of everyday language... is the primary source of all semantic antinomies, like the antinomy of the liar... Every language which is universal... and for which the normal laws of logic hold, must be inconsistent.”
- Source: Alfred Tarski in his article ‘The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages’, written originally in Polish in 1933, translated to English in 1983 by J. H. Woodger and published within the book ‘Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics’ edited by J. Corcoran, page 164. Online at http://www.thatmarcusfamily.org/philosophy/Course_Websites/Readings/Tarski%20-%20The%20Concept%20of%20Truth%20in%20Formalized%20Languages.pdf.
Truth Doubtful
“The very possibility of a consistent use of the expression ‘true sentence’ which is in harmony with the laws of logic and the spirit of everyday language seems to be very questionable, and consequently the same doubt attaches to the possibility of constructing a correct definition of this expression.”
- Source: Alfred Tarski in his article ‘The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages’, written originally in Polish in 1933, translated to English in 1983 by J. H. Woodger and published within the book ‘Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics’ edited by J. Corcoran, page 165. Online at http://www.thatmarcusfamily.org/philosophy/Course_Websites/Readings/Tarski%20-%20The%20Concept%20of%20Truth%20in%20Formalized%20Languages.pdf.
- Keywords: Possibility_quotes Consistent_quotes Use_quotes Expression_quotes True_quotes Truth_quotes Harmony_quotes Law_quotes Logic_quotes Spirit_quotes Everyday_quotes Language_quotes Seem_quotes Questionable_quotes Doubt_quotes Attach_quotes Same_quotes Construct_quotes Correct_quotes Definition_quotes
Alfred_North_Whitehead
Rigid Dogma Destroys Truth
“It is rigid dogma that destroys truth; and, please notice, my emphasis is not on the dogma, but on the rigidity. When men say of any question, ‘This is all there is to be known or said of the subject; investigation ends here,' that is death. It may be that the mischief comes not from the thinker but for the use made of his thinking by late-comers. Aristotle, for example, gave us our scientific technique ... yet his logical propositions, his instruction in sound reasoning which was bequeathed to Europe, are valid only within the limited framework of formal logic, and, as used in Europe, they stultified the minds of whole generations of medieval Schoolmen. Aristotle invented science, but destroyed philosophy.”
- Source: Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, as recorded by Lucien Price (1954, 2001), 165.
- Keywords: Rigidity_quotes Dogma_quotes Destroy_quotes Truth_quotes Emphasis_quotes Men_quotes Say_quotes Question_quotes Knowledge_quotes Subject_quotes Investigation_quotes Death_quotes Mischief_quotes Come_quotes Thinker_quotes Late_quotes Aristotle(topic)_quotes Example_quotes Logic_quotes Science_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Technique_quotes Proposition_quotes Instruction_quotes Sound_quotes Reason_quotes Bequeath_quotes Europe(topic)_quotes Validity_quotes Limitation_quotes Framework_quotes Formal_quotes Stultify_quotes Mind_quotes Generation_quotes Medieval_quotes Schoolmen_quotes Philosophy_quotes Method_quotes
Shoshana_Zuboff
Frederick Taylor
“The man who emerged as the chief symbol of the rational approach to management was Frederick Taylor. Though much has been written on Taylor and the philosophy and methods of scientific management, it is worth highlighting a few central themes for three reasons. First, Taylorism explicitly treats the worker's body in its two dimensions -- as a source of effort and as a source of skill. Second, workers' responses to Taylorism reveal the ambivalence that this dual role of the body can create, as it did among the bleach plant operators or the nineteenth-century glassmakers. Third, the logic that motivated the early purveyors and adapters of scientific management has continued to dominate the course of automation in the twentieth-century workplace. As will be argued later, it is a logic that must undergo a fundamental reevaluation as information technology is widely adapted to productive activity.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 41. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Scientific_Management_quotes Effort_quotes Skill_quotes Ambivalence_quotes Automation_quotes Information_Technology_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes Workplace_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Man_quotes Emerge_quotes Chief_quotes Symbol_quotes Rational_quotes Approach_quotes Management_quotes Philosophy_quotes Method_quotes Central_quotes Theme_quotes Reason_quotes Treat_quotes Worker_quotes Body_quotes Dimension_quotes Source_quotes Response_quotes Reveal_quotes Dual_quotes Role_quotes Create_quotes Bleach_quotes Plant_quotes Operator_quotes Glassmaker_quotes Logic_quotes Motivation_quotes Purveyor_quotes Adapter_quotes Dominate_quotes Course_quotes Fundamental_quotes Reevaluation_quotes Productive_quotes Activity_quotes
Divergence of Interests
“Taylor had believed that the transcendent logic of science, together with easier work and better, more fairly determined wages, could integrate the worker into the organization and inspire a zest for production. Instead, the forms of work organization that emerged with scientific management tended to amplify the divergence of interests between management and workers.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 45. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Logic_quotes Science_quotes Taylorism_quotes Work_quotes Automation_quotes Fairness_quotes Compensation_quotes Worker_quotes Organization_quotes Zest_quotes Production_quotes Amplification_quotes Divergence_quotes Interest_quotes Management_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Believe_quotes Transcendent_quotes Wage_quotes Integrate_quotes Inspire_quotes Form_quotes Emerge_quotes
Automation and Labor
“Perhaps the most compelling reality that drives managers to a narrowly conceived emphasis on automation is the web of economic logic in which they must operate. Frequently, new expenditures for technology can be justified only as a capital substitution for labor. It is often assumed that whatever was provided by the human contributor can be transferred to the automatic functioning of the machine system.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 248. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Management_quotes Automation_quotes Labor_quotes Economics_quotes Logic_quotes Technology_quotes Expenditure_quotes Cost_quotes Justification_quotes Capital_quotes Skill_quotes Knowledge_quotes Compelling_quotes Reality_quotes Drive_quotes Narrow_quotes Conceive_quotes Emphasis_quotes Web_quotes Operate_quotes Frequent_quotes Substitution_quotes Human_quotes Contributor_quotes Transfer_quotes Function_quotes Machine_quotes System_quotes
Fundamental Scientific Management Reevaluation
“The logic that motivated the early purveyors and adapters of scientific management has continued to dominate the course of automation... It is a logic that must undergo a fundamental reevaluation as information technology is widely adapted to productive activity.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 42. ISBN:0465032125.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Logic_quotes Motivation_quotes Adapter_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Domination_quotes Automation_quotes Fundamental_quotes Evaluation_quotes Information_Technology_quotes Adaptation_quotes Productivity_quotes Activity_quotes Early_quotes Purveyor_quotes Science_quotes Management_quotes Undergo_quotes Reevaluation_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes