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Philosophers
Mortimer Adler Rogers Albritton Alexander of Aphrodisias G.E.M.Anscombe Thomas Aquinas Aristotle David Armstrong Augustine A.J.Ayer Mark Balaguer William Belsham Isaiah Berlin Bernard Berofsky Susanne Bobzien George Boole F.H.Bradley C.D.Broad C.A.Campbell Joseph Keim Campbell Carneades Ernst Cassirer Roderick Chisholm Chrysippus Cicero Randolph Clarke Samuel Clarke Donald Davidson Democritus Daniel Dennett René Descartes Richard Double Fred Dretske John Earman Laura Waddell Ekstrom Epictetus Epicurus John Martin Fischer Owen Flanagan Philippa Foot Alfred Fouilleé Harry Frankfurt Richard L. Franklin Carl Ginet Nicholas St. John Green Ian Hacking Ishtiyaque Haji Stuart Hampshire Georg W.F. Hegel Martin Heidegger R.E.Hobart Thomas Hobbes David Hodgson Shadsworth Hodgson Ted Honderich Pamela Huby David Hume William James Robert Kane Immanuel Kant Tomis Kapitan Christine Korsgaard Keith Lehrer Gottfried Leibniz Leucippus C.I.Lewis David Lewis John Locke John R. Lucas Lucretius Hugh McCann Colin McGinn Michael McKenna Alfred Mele John Stuart Mill Dickinson Miller G.E.Moore Thomas Nagel Friedrich Nietzsche P.H.Nowell-Smith Robert Nozick William of Ockham Timothy O'Connor Charles Sanders Peirce Derk Pereboom Steven Pinker Plato Karl Popper H.A.Prichard Willard van Orman Quine Frank Ramsey Ayn Rand Thomas Reid Charles Renouvier Nicholas Rescher Josiah Royce Bertrand Russell Paul Russell Gilbert Ryle T.M.Scanlon Moritz Schlick Arthur Schopenhauer John Searle Henry Sidgwick Walter Sinnott-Armstrong J.J.C.Smart Saul Smilansky Michael Smith Galen Strawson Peter Strawson Eleonore Stump Richard Taylor Kevin Timpe Peter van Inwagen Manuel Vargas John Venn Kadri Vihvelin G.H. von Wright R. Jay Wallace Ted Warfield Roy Weatherford Alfred North Whitehead David Widerker David Wiggins Ludwig Wittgenstein Susan Wolf Scientists Margaret Boden Neils Bohr Ludwig Boltzmann Max Born Stephen Brush Arthur Holly Compton Abraham de Moivre John Eccles Arthur Stanley Eddington Albert Einstein Richard Feynman A.O.Gomes Joshua Greene Jacques Hadamard Martin Heisenberg Werner Heisenberg Pierre-Simon Laplace David Layzer Ernst Mach Henry Margenau James Clerk Maxwell Ernst Mayr Jacques Monod Steven Pinker Max Planck Henri Poincaré Erwin Schrödinger Herbert Simon B. F. Skinner William Thomson (Kelvin) John von Neumann Daniel Wegner Steven Weinberg |
Language
Language has been intimately tied to philosophy since Plato and his Cratylus searched for deep truths in the etymology of words. But the real disaster has been the last hundred years when so many philosophers sought solutions to (or dissolutions of) philosophical problems in language itself.
The main medium of philosophy is not its message.
Philosophy has been the history of philosophers (mis)reading their predecessors and rewriting similar arguments using new words for similar concepts.
Socrates played with words and the dangers were apparent, but it was many centuries before Leibniz insisted that philosophy requires an ideal language, one free from the ambiguities that allowed what Kant would call "word juggling." Russell and the early Wittgenstein were the last to attempt an ideal language - molecular sentences logically built up from verifiable atomic facts of sense data.
Leibniz and Russell both knew that major advances in knowledge are possible when abstract symbols are used to represent physical concepts. Symbols can be inserted in mathematical equations that express a theory analytically, and quantitative predictions become deducible and testable by experiment. Sadly, it was Russell who proved that even simple statements can contain logical paradoxes.
If language were free of ambiguity, the meaning of a statement we hear or read might be the same meaning intended by the speaker or writer.
Scientists of course use language to explain to their colleagues what they are doing, and at that point introduce the possibility of misunderstanding. But ordinary language, augmented with symbolic logic, with geometric diagrams, with mathematical equations that describe physical theories, and with computer models and simulations, can describe the knowledge that best explains how the world works, that is, science. This augmented language of science is the nearest thing we have to the ideal language of the philosophers.
When philosophers invent new terms or use existing terms in new ways, ambiguities commonly lead to misunderstanding. We hope to produce a short glossary of philosophical terms that describes how different philosophers have used important terms. And for some major concepts we have assembled a timeline of the words used over the centuries, dualisms, for example.
We quote, in their original language where feasible, the major thoughts of philosophers on our main topics, so you can see for yourself their "word juggling."
We too are guilty of adding new uses for old words, and even coining a word or two. We hope to be very clear about this new jargon. Think of it as putting new philosophical wine in the old bottles Cogito, Ergo, and Sum, and creating a new philosophical bottle, the Ergod.
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