Logic/Frege

Logic: A extremely in-depth way of analysing/deconstructing both language and mathematics. Like taking an alarm clock to pieces and inspecting each section to see how it works, that is what Frege is said to have done with language.

Gottlob Frege- 1848-1925

1876- Came up with the idea of the ‘concept script’ which based itself on the question “How do we think about thinking?”.  Frege sought to find truth in all situations. He did this by distinguishing the difference between expression and identity as well as bringing more specificity to arithmetic/Aristotelian discipline.

Analytic logic which at the time replaced the syllogistic logic that Aristotle had invented. (Aristotle is a man, thus Aristotle is mortal)

Instead, Frege changes this using the ‘Power of IF’

IF Aristotle is a man THEN he is mortal.

This divides the statements into DATUMs and FUNCTION

It uses the 12 categories to divided argument/statements into to ensure pure analysis/deconstruct.

Anthony Kenny on Frege

Frege created a new calculus at the heart of logic, which at it’s heart, had the desire to establish true nature of logic/arithmetic. He did this using a single notation applicable to every field which makes rigorous use of proofs. This in turn created a flexible method of bringing out relevant similarities. He divided sentences/language into 3 types: Signs/Senses and references.

John Stuart Mill believed that Logic was a posteriori.

After Frege dissolved language so much that afterwards there was a clear difference between thinking and emoting. Ensuring that whatever you may possibly think would be true and logically and what you would emote would be feeling.

 

Economics/Keynesian, HCJ

The reading for this lecture/seminar was John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, which gives insight into the working class of the dustbowl during the Great Depression.

The seminar focused on John Maynard Keynes(1883-1946) ideas/influence on Economics during the 30’s/40’s.

The main focus Keynesian economics based itself  upon was that whats good for you is not good for everyone. As well the fact that the economy can also take dip due to circumstances, outside of financial control.There is also the debate of whether people act rationally or irrationally when it comes to money/their wealth. This is where Keynes believes that people do not act in the good of the country, buying things at full price/illegally downloading movies and music and not paying at full price which is detrimental to the economy.

Keynes believed that the American economy needed to be stirred into life if it wanted to be jump started, his ideas:

1. A reduction in interest rates (monetary policy), and
2. Government investment in infrastructure (fiscal policy).

He believed would help create a feeling of faith between the banks and it’s customers.

Keynes, a modernist, understood that Utilitarianism was not how the economy should be run, he understood the need for fiscal policy but also a less method based approach to the economy, taking into account banks but also people and the mindset of them . However that could see the government encroach on the freedoms of the people much like with the new changes made the obtaining mortgages. Keynes believed that it was better to have people digging holes just to hinder unemployment, which could further ‘disequilibrium’ in the economy despite Ricardo/Smith believing unemployment was impossible or against the human condition.

Ricardo believed that there was an intrinsic value to  certain objects depending on the effort it took to make such, where as Adam Smith(1723-1790) believed however that the value of objects solely responded to supply and demand. Ricardo, who wrote the Labour Theory of Value, differed also with Karl Marx on the subjects of Labour Power/Pricing/Scarcity, which could have been due to an influence from Thomas Malthus and his principals on population.

There is also the debate of whether people act rationally or irrationally when it comes to money/their wealth. This is where Keynes believes that people do not act in the good of the country, buying things at full price/illegally downloading movies and music and not paying at full price which is detrimental to the economy.

Leslie Stephen wrote:

“If Malthus and Ricardo differed, it was a difference of men who accepted the same first principles. They both professed to interpret Adam Smith as the true prophet, and represented different shades of opinion rather than diverging sects.”

Now the conversation in Economics turns not to much unemployment, but debt and it’s ‘ceiling’ which one could say is being dealt with in a similar ‘Adam Smith-esque’ way. Instead of people/government’s naturally doing anything to ensure employment, it’s more ensuring the problem with the debt will never be TOO bad or TOO much. In our seminar the discussion on the UK’s use of the Bond Market was the major topic for discussion.