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The Begriffschrift has in no way been consigned to the rubbish heap of history. What gave you that impression? It is seminal. That it had one unresolved paradox
by igravious 2mo ago
The Begriffschrift has in no way been consigned to the rubbish heap of history. What gave you that impression? It is seminal. That it had one unresolved paradox in its set-theoretic foundations does not scupper the philosophical insights, nor the creative notation, nor the more-or-less novel approach of conjoining mathematical functions and logic to give us predicate logic (apologies for this brutally simplified sketch)
i like to think of Frege and the Begriffschrift like this
Boole: logic + algebra = algebraic logic
Frege: logic + functions = predicate logic
ergo, if Boole is rightly deified then so should Frege regardless of minor infelicities (which prompted type theory anyhow) -- again, apologies if this is totally misleading
- voidhorse 2mo agoHey man, I completely agree. I love the begriffschrift and recognize the very important role it played in the history of logic. The reason I say it's in the rubbish heap is because basically only experts and people with strange hobbies know about it. The set of people familiar with the Principia is vastly greater than those who know what the Begriffschrift is. That's what I meant, not that it wasn't important, but that it's importance is now under recognized and under appreciated.