Notes about History of Western Philosophy

1. Role of Mathematics as a model of eternal truth, against the empirical world: 52-56, 171, 785-786 (dethrone it)
   
2. Intellettualized Theology of Europe as descending from Math, p56
3. First ideas about evolution: Anaximander, p47
4. Das Kontinuum, 80(Anaxagoras), 219(Eudoxus), 784(Cantor-Weierstrass-Frege)
5. Teleology vs. Causality: Atomism as getting the right direction, but soon forgotten : 84, 87
6. Absolute Space: 87-88, 524-525,566 (Leibnitz idea as a system of relations)
7. Materialism: 89,213,254(klinamen),523,551
8. Fear of death, Religion, Superstitions: 258-259,466
9. Source of original Christian ideas (priestood separated from layman, resurrection,eating flesh of god etc): 466-468
10. Asia vs Europa: 395
11. Problem of Universals, 141
12. Substitution of Aristoteles for Plato in XIII century: 305, 468
13. God Thuth as metaphors of Limits to Human Power: p699-700,
14. Disruption of Liberalism and Democracy from Within: 616, 699-700
15. Legalita’ di fatto/vs. legalita’ di idee della societa’ moderna: impero romano vs. Chiesa vs. societa’ liberale: 482
16. Sozein ta phainomena (Platone, Eudosso, Aristarco): 145, 224, 226
17. Mixing of Scientific and Moral Domains, 95, 739,788-789
18. Stability of Society vs. Genius (G. Steiner argument): 490,491
19. Churches opposed to knowledge: 515,520
20. Deductive methods:788, 560,221,
21. Concept of Force: 524
22. Hume: science rests on induction, but induction cannot be proved inductively, 647 (see also Conclusion of The Human Use of Human Being, Norbert Wiener)
23. Modern Analytical Empiricism: goals and strategies : 788
24. Cassirer on Galileo (jstor): the support G. gave to Copernicus and the heliocentric hypothesis corresponds to the attempt to break away from TELEOlogy. So as science must be antifinalistic but based on causes, so the world has not been made for the human being (the earth is not even at the center of it)

Further issues and points of discussion:

1. Axiomatic Set Theory:
   -Axiomatic Set Theory, Suppes
   -Naive Set Theory, Halmos
   Need to understand properly the crisis of fundaments based on the Russell & Burali-Forti Parodoxes etc
   Need to properly master Cantor construction of the Set Theory and of Real Numbers
2. Das Kontinuum
   -Hilbert 1st problem (see also D. Hilbert, Über das Unendliche)
   –What is Cantor’s continuum problem?, K. Gödel
3. Remarks to his ideas
   – The gulf between what science can predicate about/what it cannot: apropos Nietzsche (pgg….)
   In reality, modern science tends to conquer that space as well (the challenge raised by Nietzsche in Fröhliche Wissenschaft):
   cfr. Roger Sperry, Mind Brain and Humanist values  also quoted in Montalcini, R.L, Abbi il coraggio di sapere
   – Wilson, E. Consilience (where a complete proposition is articulated along those lines)
   – Feuerbach & Telmo Pievani/Daniel Dennet connection (see Micromega, Almanacco Di Scienze, 2009: Vallortigara et al )
4. Stephen Weinberg on A Designer Universe
5. Russell relevant papers:
   -A free Man’s Worship, 1903
   -The Expanding mental Universe, 1959

Categories: Episteme