Kripkenstein: Rule and Indeterminacy
ABSTRACT: Indeterminacy theories, such as Wittgenstein's and Kripke's indeterminacy principle on rules and language and Quine's indeterminacy of radical translation, raise some fundamental questions on our knowledge and understanding. In this paper we try to outline and interpret Wittgenstein's and Kripke's indeterminacy, and then compare it to some other related theories on indeterminacy of human thinking, such as raised by Hume, Quine, and Goodman.
Quine's indeterminacy differs from Wittgenstein's in several aspects. First, Wittgenstein and Kripke's indeterminacy applies to a single individual in isolation and this indeterminacy disappears when the single person is brought into a wider community. Thus, this indeterminacy is only logically possible or hypothetical. Second, in Quine's problem, two translation manuals are distinguishable; while Wittgenstein's hypotheses, such as 'plus' and 'quus' and many others, are indistinguishable for the subject's past and the subject would never aware of the distinctions. Third, in Wittgenstein's view, whether a member follows the rules or not can be determined by 'outward criterion'. Quine's indeterminacy denies the existence of such 'outward criterion' for his two translation manuals.
Goodman's hypothesis of 'grue' is quite different from the above two indeterminacy in terms of both objective of introducing the concept and the usage of it. Goodman's issue is to search for the rules in screening out 'bad' assumptions in induction. This induction issue is not indeterminacy of Wittgenstein's skeptic arguments or Quine's radical translation.
Wittgenstein and Kripke's conclusion that that rules are brute facts seems to be questionable. Form of life is one of Wittgenstein's key concepts in his theory on rules and is linked to rules in some crucial ways. A community cannot agree on arbitrary rules and rules other than some highly selected ones cannot bind a community together. What a community agree or disagree is not an arbitrary game.
Kripke presents Wittgenstein's theory on rules in his book Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. The topic is difficult and the presentation seems to inherit some characteristics of the original work, which "is not presented in the form of a deductive argument with definitive theses as conclusions,..." (Kripke, 1982, p.3). Kripke tells the reader: "The point to be made here is that, at the same time the second part is important for an ultimate understanding of the first.'' (1982, p.84) "In this way the relation ship between the first and the second portions... is reciprocal." (1982, p.85). We find that a reciprocal reading helps me to understand and absorb the main points and arguments.
ABSTRACT: Davidson argues (1) that the connection between belief and the "constitutive ideal of rationality" (2) precludes the possibility of their being any type-type identities between mental and physical events. However, there are radically different ways to understand both the nature and content of this "constitutive ideal," and the plausibility of Davidson’s argument depends on blurring the distinction between two of these ways. Indeed, it will be argued here that no consistent understanding of the constitutive ideal will allow it to play the dialectical role Davidson intends for it.
The aspect of self-discovery is something that is only granted to those who learn to let go of their foolish desires to conform to the norms of society. In his semi-autobiographical novel This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates a fictional version of himself through the book's main character, Amory Blaine, a male protagonist, who struggles in discovering his self-identity, of which he soon does. After learning that molding himself to the ways of society does not satisfy him, Amory soon finds the love of his life, a girl named Rosalind Connage. However, after losing her to another man, Amory’s heart is completely crushed, and he is never the same afterwards. Throughout the book, Amory changes from a selfish, self-absorbed, cocky adolescent
As those philosophers before him, or at least as far back as Descartes, John Locke is “perplexed with obscure terms and useless question” (qtd. in Jones 238), and is interested in starting fresh and free from the opinions of his predecessors. He devises the historical plain method in order to examine the knowledge we posses, with the assumption that the mind is “white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas,” (qtd. in Jones 245). My interest here, however, is to briefly describe, and to evaluate Locke’s historical plain method. The following passages are to demonstrate the chief values and key limitations of the historical plain method as it pertains to its own investigation of what is true from experience, and to show that Locke mistakes a logical approach for a historical approach, meaning that his method is a logical plain method.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig; G. E. M. Anscombe, P.M.S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte (eds. and trans.). Philosophical Investigations. 4th edition, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.
Hume distinguishes two categories into which “all the objects of human reason or enquiry” may be placed into: Relations of Ideas and Matters of Fact (15). In regards to matters of fact, cause and effect seems to be the main principle involved. It is clear that when we have a fact, it must have been inferred...
There are certain struggles in life that some are not sufficiently knowledgeable to overcome. A prevalent issue, F. Scott Fitzgerald was unwillingly forced into, during the twentieth century, was naiveness. This brought common misconceptions of what makes life worthwhile. The novel, This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is influenced by his adolescent to adult years. Through the character of Amory Blaine, Fitzgerald portrays that naiveness and conceit can prevent life fulfillment.
AIDS is a deadly disease that affects people world wide. AIDS is a disease that brings about many social consequences. Many of these consequences result in physical, emotional, and economic problems. AIDS compromises the immune system of the human body, making a person susceptible to many different illnesses and infections. Among these are: unexplained fatigue and weight loss, night sweats and flu-like feelings. These infirmities can interfere with a person’s daily physical tasks. For example, taking a shower, eating, working, excersing, caring for a child, and cooking. Being unable to perform these tasks makes an n individuals life extremely difficult. Individuals with AIDS also experience a number of emotional problems because of the social stigmas attached to AIDS. For instance, a person having to be scared to let others know he or she is infected, and being unable to engage in intimate relations without infecting others. Further emotional problems can be caused with the continuous worry of death, which can inhibit a person’s normal functioning .People who have these issues develop a great deal of emotional problems because one feels that they do not fit into society. AIDS is not only a disease that affects an individual, but it also affects the larger society . This is so because of the financial needs to help fund programs and organizations to help stop the spread of AIDS and help those who suffer from AIDS. Although, the money goes towards helping AIDS victims it is costly for tax payers, when it can go towards helping people and developing educational programs within their communities. Why should the population pay for the bill for the consequences of others? As one can see, AIDS doesn’t only bring about consequences that indirectly affect individuals, but it also brings about consequences for society as well.
The problem of induction has a close relation with the inductive reasoning and such expression as “a posteriori”. There are two distinct methods of reasoning: deductive and inductive approaches. A deductive argument is the truth preserving in which if the premises are true than it follows that the conclusion will be true too. The deductive reasoning goes from the general to the specific things. On the other hand, an inductive argument is an argument that may contain true premises and still has a false conclusion. Induction or the inductive reasoning is the form of reasoning in which we make a conclusion about future experience or about presence based on the past experience. The problem of induction also has a connection with the expressions as “a priori” and “a posteriori”. The truth in a priori statement is embedded in the statement itself, and the truth is considered to be as common knowledge or justification without the need to experience. Whereas, in order to determine if a pos...
By the year 2000, 58 million people have been infected by HIV/AIDS and alarming numbers such as 22 million would have already died. And the epidemic continues to spread. HIV/AIDS historically is considered to be one of the longest running worldwide epidemics that we have ever seen, and figures cannot be placed on the true death tolls or estimation of the damage as the cycle still is yet to reach an end (Whiteside 2002). With Africa being the worst hit continent in the world in terms of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the severity of it’s prevalence; one can only begin to question whether HIV/AIDS and poverty and directly connected or the inter-linkages exacerbate one or the other. This paper aims to argue that HIV/AIDS is a manifestation of poverty, and simultaneously poverty contributes to growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Development in response both to poverty reduction and to HIV/AIDS is complicated when both have multi-dimensional and multi-faceted impacts on a society, whether it be social, economic or human development impacts. This paper will argue that pre-existing socio economic conditions within a country such as high levels of poverty, poor sanitation, malnutrition, environmental degradation and poor public healthcare systems and limited access to preventative care are crucial factors in contributing to the transfer of the infection (Pasteur: 2000, Mann: 1999).
Donnellen (1966) criticized the Russell and Strawson’s view. He claimed that there are attributive and referential uses of definite description. The former is about attributively using definite description in an assertion which stating something about “A is B”. The latter is about speaker using the description to let the audience to know what is “A is B” about. Donnellen claimed that Russell focus on former and Strawson focus on latter.
Russell’s Theory of Definite Description has totally changed the way we view definite descriptions by solving the three logical paradoxes. It is undeniable that the theory itself is not yet perfect and there can be objections on this theory. Still, until now, Russell’s theory is the most logical explanation of definite description’s role.
ABSTRACT: The later Wittgenstein uses children in his philosophical arguments against the traditional views of language. Describing how they learn language is one of his philosophical methods for setting philosophers free from their views and enabling them to see the world in a different way. The purpose of this paper is to explore what features of children he takes advantage of in his arguments, and to show how we can read Wittgenstein in terms of education. Two children in Philosophical Investigations are discussed. The feature of the first child is the qualitative difference from adults. Wittgenstein uses the feature to criticize Augustinian pictures of language which tell us that children learn language by ostensive definition alone. The referential theory of meaning is so strong that philosophers fail to see the qualitative gap and to explain language-learning. The second child appears in an arithmetical instruction. Although he was understood to master counting numbers, he suddenly shows deviant reactions. Wittgenstein argues against the mentalistic idea of understanding by calling attention to the potential otherness of the child. This could happen anytime the child has not learned counting correctly. The two features show that teaching is unlike telling, an activity toward the other who does not understand our explanations. Since we might not understand learners because of otherness, the justification of teaching is a crucial problem that is not properly answered so long as otherness is unrecognized. As long as we ignore otherness, we would not be aware that we might mistreat learners.
The purpose of this paper is to exam a Healthy People 2020 health topic. This paper will discuss HIV; human immunodeficiency virus. This paper will assess, interpret, justify, evaluate and appraise HIV disease, its history, health statistics, preventive measures, the role of the nurse and finally an appraisal of the health programs and availability of supportive care.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus better known as HIV is a lentivirus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system which allows life threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. HIV was identified in 1983 and scientist started trying to understand where it came from, when it arisen, and why it spread so quickly. This day in time over 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV. CDC estimated that 1,144,500 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection. That statistics scares me because back in 1983 when HIV first arouse it was only commonly in gay Caucasian men, where as now HIV has no particular because they are seen in all genders, sexuality, and races there is. HIV has been responsible for the vast majority of AIDS cases worldwide. Patients testing positive for HIV have many factors that influences the infection risk, rate and prevention of their positive status. Socioeconomic Factors are some factors that can influence the risk, rate and prevention of HIV positive patients. A socioeconomic factor is the social and economic experiences and realities that help mold one’s personal lifestyle. The focus of my paper will be what socioeconomic factors that have a big impact on people with positive HIV statuses. This topic is an important topic because people living with HIV all seem to have common socioeconomic factors that have impacted their positive status in maybe a positive or negative way. These influences can range from where a person demographic location is such as in a rural area which is a geographic area located outside of cities and towns, ove...
6. Behavior under Negation: Since conventional implicatures are independent from at-issue meaning, and are (almost) always ‘speaker oriented’, they normally survive under negation, in if-clauses,