Jody Azzouni, Tracking Reason
In many ways, Tracking Reason resembles Jody Azzouni’s previous book,
Deflating Existential Consequence. The subject matter of each lies at the interface
of metaphysics, logic, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of
language. The style is both entertaining and clear. The positions argued for
are so controversial as to sound almost insane. And yet the arguments provided
are illuminating, and manage to make the positions seem almost like common
sense. Both books are worth reading both for specialists and those interested
in a clarifying (if idiosyncratic) take on these issues.
In the previous book, Azzouni argued for a type of fictionalism about mathematics.
But rather than following Hartry Field in denying the indispensability
of mathematics, he simply argues that the indispensability of a form of discourse
(and even the truth of existentially quantified sentences!) is not a sign of ontological
commitment. This position helps motivate some of the positions in the
current book, but I think it isn’t necessary.
Tracking Reason advances several separate, but related positions in its three
parts. However, for some reason the subtitle has them in the wrong order -
Part I argues for a special deflationary account of truth (and deals at length
with the semantics and regimentation of natural language); Part II argues that
the role of mathematical proof is to “indicate” a derivation in some mechanical
deduction system; and Part III argues that these two positions are (despite
appearances) compatible with a non-syntactic view of consequence as a type of
truth-preservation. Parts I and II are relatively independent, and I think can
profitably be read on their own. Part III depends mo...
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...f semantics (topological and Kripke) that are sound and
complete for S4 modal logic. The fact that we only know of one semantics
for propositional logic has misled us into thinking that its models are more
significant than they really are.
As I mentioned earlier, this book is modular enough that it may be worth
reading parts of this book independently of the whole thing. Although Azzouni
says that much of the material of the nine chapters of this book derives from ten
3
papers (cited in the introduction to each of the three parts), they seem to have
been edited and unified enough that a reader interested in just one topic may
prefer to read the relevant Part (I or II) of this book rather than the separate
papers that it is based on. But for anyone interested in the relationships between
truth, proof, and consequence, I recommend reading the entire thing.
...onally transposing indirect to direct quotation, putting words into people mouths and blending two separate eye witness's accounts. How can one read a novel for knowledge gaining purposes when the structure appears so flawed? The use of modern and old English are combined in the sentence structure. The highly academic vocabulary not only is confusing, but breaks the flow of the book when that is the evident purpose for the format of the book. The confusing order in which Starkey retells events and the ineffective and useless information that is put in for building character personalities.
In the first chapter of the book we are introduced to one of the main
The student may find it useful to begin the paper with the following quote from the novel:
According the sweeping introduction of the book, I am already able to envision a number of entry points for the investigation of this
This is my personal reflection about this book. First and foremost, I would like to say that this book is very thick and long to read. There are about nineteen chapters and 278 pages altogether. As a slow reader, it is a quite hard for me to finish reading it within time. It took me weeks to finish reading it as a whole. Furthermore, it is written in English version. My English is just in average so sometimes I need to refer to dictionary for certain words. Sometimes I use google translate and ask my friends to explain the meaning of certain terms.
There is a lot of information presented in the text. This is why McNeill has to be careful with the organization of concepts in his book. M...
A first example in the book is the process in which babies are “born.” The intricate fertilizing, decanting, and conditioning processes is directly used to produce and control a 5 caste system in society. Now, this is not a bad idea, other system is flawed. We see this in people like Bernard. An alpha is supposed to be at the top of society being well formed, tall, good looking and intelligent. Bernard however is somewhat shorter and less handsome than the rest of the men in his caste, and therefore is thought of as queer. This inconsistency in the hatching system shows proof that the system is not completely safe or stable, and will in time produce more and more “social rejects” that can only lead to destroy the system.
not nearly as in depth as we did the other authors. Schlesinger's list seems to
2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.
The biggest type thing that I picked up on in this book was neglect to the children. The definition of child
of other authors’ books. If you are interested in these writings, I again strongly recommend Colin Stanley's exhaustive reference
Based on the Oxford Edition. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2008. 815-24.
During the chapter he talks about certain topics, such as the war on poverty and sex education, and broke each one down with the four stages. I had a particular interest on the topic of sex education. I agreed with Sowell about the “Crisis” with the sex education within schools. He mentioned hoe pregnancy and disease was done in the 60’s than it had been in the fifties. Usually when society makes a fuss, it could do the opposite affect than help the situation. It seems when sex education was permitted into schools, which more sex started to happen. Although that may have not been the intent, but unfortunately it did not help the problem, that was never a real problem.
This book was a good read for me, but I also read book reviews to help me keep track on what I am reading. These book reviews just made a better understanding of what I was reading.
Now all of these articles have their own specific goals and information they are trying to find, but they all have two major things in common.