A few words on the purposes and character of the work.
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Part II of Analyses of Analysis is the part where I seek to present and subject to comparative analysis modern analytic methods
and their philosophical underpinnings.
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First part of an analytic history of Philosophical Analysis, consisting of examples of exegetical analysis pertinent to the
origins of modern methods.
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A condensation of the formal backbone to the formal analyses, presenting the naked analytic truths obtained by deduction in
the context of the formal models.
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This project began with some work on formal modelling of Aristotle's logic and metaphysics.
This idea seemed to be working out OK and I invented a formal book project consisting of lots of such models.
My interest in this project has waxed and waned since.
There is some doubt about how much exegetical work I am ever likely to undertake, but there is little doubt that a significant
part of my output will be formal, and that the formal material which is not exegetical will nevertheless in some other way
be attempting to progress my conception of formal philosophical analysis.
So at the moment I am thinking of this work as being a compendium of my formal work in which the first volume consists in
exegetical analysis, and the second consists in more original work intended to progress various aspects of analytic philosophy
by formal means.
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The present title 'Analyses of Analysis' reflects the multilayered nature of most of the work.
Thus, the exegetical work is exegetical analysis of work which is itself philosophical analysis which is approached through
the analyses available in secondary sources.
The synthetic analysis is intended to be exposition and analysis of modern methods of analysis, and of various fundamental
problems connected with those methods.
It is synthetic because in this part I am engaged in constructing analytic method, and in the philosophical underpinnings
for such methods, but it remains analytic, because it is intended to underpin the methods by comparative analysis of their
merits.
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Prelude on Changes in Progress
This work in (intermittent) progress began as a history, which is a silly thing for me to attempt.
I dropped history from the title, even though there will probably still be significant historical content, in search of a
title fitting better my as yet sketchy sense of the purpose of the work.
It is intended to incorporate some kind of an account of the general notions of comparative and nomologico-deductive analysis
which form the centerpiece of the analytic philosophy which I call "Metaphysical Positivism".
It is intended to fit together with two other works on Positive Philosophy, the whole still evolving in its overall conception.
Expect the available content to be sketchy and inconsistent!
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Purpose and Character
This document is intended to play a role in the development and exposition of Metphysical Positivism a contemporary positivistic philosophical system, and a part of a broader conception of philosophy which I call Positive Philosophy.
Central features of Metaphysical Positivism are a liberal attitude toward method and a preoccupation with analytic method
and its infrastructure.
In this context "infrastructure" should be understood broadly, to include comparative ideology and methodology, philosophical
underpinnings, logical and mathematical foundations, and supporting software.
The enterprise is "meta-circular" the underpinnings of analysis encompass a substantial part of its philosophical applications.
The historical aspects of the work are to trace the history of key elements of the philosophical and technical basis for analytic
methods, and to do so by comparative analysis, providing an extended exemplar of the methods.
There will also be forward looking elements, in which ideas for infrastructure are presented and analysed.
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The backbone of this analytic history will be a series of informal and formal models of
various aspects of the history of philosophical analysis, semantics and
metaphysics.
The analytic methods employed are intended to be diverse, allowing the analysis of any problem domain to progress from intuitive
to formal methods as the work progresses.
Two general features of the analytic methods employed are emphasised.
The first is that conclusions are generally comparative rather than definitive, and there is particular interest in the explorations
of different comparative measures.
Second there is a particular interest in a class of methods which we call "nomologico-deductive methods", which are those
methods which involve rigorous application of deduction (allowing for various degrees of rigour).
There is a complementary interest in what we might call pre-deductive methods, in understanding the merits of analyses achieved
by these means, and in how these can be "progressed" to nomologico-deductive analyses.
A particular formal nomologico-deductive method as supported by the ProofPower proof development software will be used for
formal material.
Those aspects of the history of philosophy and logic which underpin the both general methods employed and the more specific
formal techniques will be emphasised, providing a partial 2500 year history of the developments which culminated in these
methods.
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This work is being undertaken in tandem with a much smaller informal volume
promulgating a new generation of positivistic phlosophy and entitled
"metaphysical positivism", a key feature of which is the reconciliation of some
of the more benign features of positivist thought with a positive attitude
towards metaphysics.
This explains the particular place in the proposed history of metaphysics, and
the importance attached to the central notion of "logical truth" and its
various correlates such as logical necessity, and the interest in semantics and
analyiticity.
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Here are some ideas about philosophers to be included in some way in the formal exegetic analysis.
At this stage the only one to have made significant progress is Aristotle.
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Leibniz
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Hume and Kant
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Frege
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Russell and Wittgenstein
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Carnap
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Quine
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Kripke
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Logicism
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Formalism
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Constructive Mathematics
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Structuralism
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Set Theory
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Combinatory Logic
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Type Theories
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The Method
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Applications
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Introduction
Some tentative ideas about what this volume might cover.
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Ultimately
This will be, in the final work, a separate volume comprising complete listings
of all the formal theories developed in the first two parts, and of any
previoualy developed theories upon which the work depends.
These will be fully indexed to facilitate reference.
It will provide a listing of all the definitively proven results, which will
constitute exclusively analytic propositions for which formal demonstrations
will have been constructed and computer checked.
Each theory listing will include the definitions which establish the
logical context for the derivations.
This part will also provide complete definitions of the logic in which the work
has been done, either explicitly or by reference.
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En Passant
Publication, all being well, will be in stages, even though all parts of the
work will be progressed in concert.
The first edition of the first part will include the listing of the theories
belonging to that part, as will the first edition of the second volume.
Once both volumes have been published the theory listings will then be combined
into a third volume and will be removed from the first two parts.
Publication will be as "Print on Demand" through
Amazon's CreateSpace subsidiary.
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