Philosophy Concordance - online philosophical quotations

Though after being written down, the rule's existence is partly independent of the attitudes.

Therefore, as already Kant pointed out, it is rules that are most characteristic of the human kind of existence.

I have ever remained firm in my original resolution to suppose no other principle than that of which I have recently availed myself in demonstrating the existence of God and of the soul, and to accept as true nothing that did not appear to me more clear and certain than the demonstrations of the geometers had formerly appeared; and yet I venture to state that not only have I found means to satisfy myself in a short time on all the principal difficulties which are usually treated of in philosophy, but I have also observed certain laws established in nature by God in such a manner, and of which he has impressed on our minds such notions, that after we have reflected sufficiently upon these, we cannot doubt that they are accurately observed in all that exists or takes place in the world and farther, by considering the concatenation of these laws, it appears to me that I have discovered many truths more useful and more important than all I had before learned, or even had expected to learn.

It apparently augured the reconcilation of the intuition of the platonistic character of meanings with the modern mistrust of any 'ghostly entities' like ideas: we only have to presuppose the existence of the ordinary things and the possibility to group entities together - set theory has taught us that this alone is enough to yield us a platonistic heaven.

A mineral does have its structure independently of (the existence of) any other minerals (at least independently of those which are not its spatial parts) - it is enough to use a microscope which would enable us to identify it. The structure of an abstract entity, on the other hand, is always the matter of the entity's position within the web of other abstract entities of the same category - there is no "mental microscope" to examine it in isolation and penetrate inside it. This has become especially clear with the development of the mathematical theory of categories (see, e.

And though men of the highest genius study this question as long as they please, I do not believe that they will be able to give any reason which can be sufficient to remove this doubt, unless they presuppose the existence of God.

Finally, if there be still persons who are not sufficiently persuaded of the existence of God and of the soul, by the reasons I have adduced, I am desirous that they should know that all the other propositions, of the truth of which they deem themselves perhaps more assured, as that we have a body, and that there exist stars and an earth, and such like, are less certain; for, although we have a moral assurance of these things, which is so strong that there is an appearance of extravagance in doubting of their existence, yet at the same time no one, unless his intellect is impaired, can deny, when the question relates to a metaphysical certitude, that there is sufficient reason to exclude entire assurance, in the observation that when asleep we can in the same way imagine ourselves possessed of another body and that we see other stars and another earth, when there is nothing of the kind.

The structural view, on the other hand, grants primacy to the horizontal relations; it does not grant meanings any existence independent of the system of language.

Thus, the existence of meaning is considered as grounded in certain equivalences of expressions.

Similarly, what makes an expression meaningful within the system of language is not its link to a pre-existing meaning, but rather the rules of language; and meanings owe their existence to these rules.