Descartes Got it Wrong
Est, ergo sum, ergo sum conscius et potest cogitare. (It is, therefore I am, therefore I am conscious and can think.)
The Impossibility of Illogical Thought
Thought can never be of anything illogical, since, if it were, we should have to think illogically. It used to be said that God could create anything except what would be contrary to the laws of logic. The truth is that we could not say what an 'illogical' world would look like. It is as impossible to represent in language anything that 'contradicts logic' as it is in geometry to represent by its a coordinates a figure that contradicts the laws of space, or to give the coordinates of a point that does not exist.... In a certain sense, we cannot make mistakes in logic.... Self-evidence, which [Bertrand] Russell talked about so much, can be dispensable in logic, only because language itself prevents every logical mistake.--What makes logic a priori is the impossibility of illogical thought. --Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 3.03, 3.031, 3.032, 5.473, 5.4731 (H/T: Roderick T. Long )
It's amazing how such an otherwise brilliant man can make an inversion that set back philosophy for centuries.
ReplyDeletePossum instead of potest...potest means I am conscious and HE can think
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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