Philosopher of science and logician Nelson Goodman, famous for posing the so-called “new riddle of induction,” died on this day, 1998 The “old riddle of induction,” in this connection, refers to David Hume’s original proposition that “necessary” or causal connections between phenomena are unknown to us. As an Empiricist, Hume held that all knowledge is derived through sense contact and because causality
“He brought us from non-being into being; He dignified us with reason; He provided us with crafts to help sustain our lives; He causes food to spring up from the earth; He has given us cattle to serve us. For our sake there is rain, for our sake there is the sun; the hills and plains have been adorned for our benefit, affording us refuge from the peaks of the mountains. For our sake rivers flow; for our sake fountains gush forth; the sea is made calm for our trading; riches come from mines and delights from everywhere, and the whole of creation is offered as a gift to us, on account of the rich and abundant Grace of our Benefactor towards us.
But why speak of minor gifts? For our sake God lived among men; for the sake of our corrupt flesh, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. To the thankless He was their Benefactor; to those sitting in darkness, the Sun of Righteousness; upon the Cross He was the Impassible One; in death, the Life; in Hades, the Light; the Resurrection for the fallen; the spirit of adoption into sonship, bestowals of spiritual gifts, and promises of crowns.
In addition to such great and splendid benefits, or rather, benefits par excellence, the benefits that He promises us in the future life are many times greater: the delight of Paradise, glory in the Kingdom of Heaven, honors equal to those of the Angels, and the vision of God, which, for those counted worthy of it, is the highest of all goods; every rational nature desires this, and may we also attain to it, after we have cleansed ourselves of carnal passions.”
I would pose this as a brief remark to Nelson Goodman's "new riddle of Induction", which goes back to David Hume, and wherein we find that Immanuel Kant, who proposed that the so-called, "Ding an sich"
(Thing in itself) exists, but is not knowable to sense perception. Hume is known to have jumped all over this idea, and saying words that equivocate to this postulate: "If Kant's 'Ding an sich' is not knowable in itself, then let's not give it any more consideration. Let's favor the perceptions of the sense, and its attending logic. Thus, Logical Empiricism gained the major stepping stone it needed to align Kant with Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Yet, beginning in the last third of the 18th century, a movement of thinking arose in Germany that felt compelled to seek a more Realistic underlying compulsion to Kant's seeming "unknowable". This movement had its whole basis in the stimulus of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle of the Greek epoch. Thus, German Idealism, as we know it, arose as a recapitulation of the Greek epoch in which Deductive reasoning first came forth as a process of subtracting, out of "Nothing," the Elements that would bring forth a world of "Something", in which Induction could begins. As such, Goethe himself was a stabilizing influence for many years in establishing his "Primal Phenomenon" as the underlying causal connection that actually went back to Aristotle. This is what formed Rudolf Steiner's own catalyst for logical understanding, thanks to Karl Julius Schroer in the 1880's. We know that in the year 1900, Steiner blew the lid off of German Idealism with his own formulation from 1893, "The Philosophy of Freedom". By his own admission in his autobiography, when he was a boy living in Neudorfl, Hungary, he would go to a Realschule from 1872 to 1879. He had to cross the Leitha River every day in order to attend an Aristotelian style school near the Burgenland. There is an old story about this, in fact, it is the oldest epic known to humanity; the Epic of Gilgamesh, which involved two persons finding their way to this Burgenland. Steiner told this story for some reason; maybe, even, a very important reason.
“He brought us from non-being into being; He dignified us with reason; He provided us with crafts to help sustain our lives; He causes food to spring up from the earth; He has given us cattle to serve us. For our sake there is rain, for our sake there is the sun; the hills and plains have been adorned for our benefit, affording us refuge from the peaks of the mountains. For our sake rivers flow; for our sake fountains gush forth; the sea is made calm for our trading; riches come from mines and delights from everywhere, and the whole of creation is offered as a gift to us, on account of the rich and abundant Grace of our Benefactor towards us.
But why speak of minor gifts? For our sake God lived among men; for the sake of our corrupt flesh, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. To the thankless He was their Benefactor; to those sitting in darkness, the Sun of Righteousness; upon the Cross He was the Impassible One; in death, the Life; in Hades, the Light; the Resurrection for the fallen; the spirit of adoption into sonship, bestowals of spiritual gifts, and promises of crowns.
In addition to such great and splendid benefits, or rather, benefits par excellence, the benefits that He promises us in the future life are many times greater: the delight of Paradise, glory in the Kingdom of Heaven, honors equal to those of the Angels, and the vision of God, which, for those counted worthy of it, is the highest of all goods; every rational nature desires this, and may we also attain to it, after we have cleansed ourselves of carnal passions.”
—St Basil the Great
I would pose this as a brief remark to Nelson Goodman's "new riddle of Induction", which goes back to David Hume, and wherein we find that Immanuel Kant, who proposed that the so-called, "Ding an sich"
(Thing in itself) exists, but is not knowable to sense perception. Hume is known to have jumped all over this idea, and saying words that equivocate to this postulate: "If Kant's 'Ding an sich' is not knowable in itself, then let's not give it any more consideration. Let's favor the perceptions of the sense, and its attending logic. Thus, Logical Empiricism gained the major stepping stone it needed to align Kant with Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Yet, beginning in the last third of the 18th century, a movement of thinking arose in Germany that felt compelled to seek a more Realistic underlying compulsion to Kant's seeming "unknowable". This movement had its whole basis in the stimulus of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle of the Greek epoch. Thus, German Idealism, as we know it, arose as a recapitulation of the Greek epoch in which Deductive reasoning first came forth as a process of subtracting, out of "Nothing," the Elements that would bring forth a world of "Something", in which Induction could begins. As such, Goethe himself was a stabilizing influence for many years in establishing his "Primal Phenomenon" as the underlying causal connection that actually went back to Aristotle. This is what formed Rudolf Steiner's own catalyst for logical understanding, thanks to Karl Julius Schroer in the 1880's. We know that in the year 1900, Steiner blew the lid off of German Idealism with his own formulation from 1893, "The Philosophy of Freedom". By his own admission in his autobiography, when he was a boy living in Neudorfl, Hungary, he would go to a Realschule from 1872 to 1879. He had to cross the Leitha River every day in order to attend an Aristotelian style school near the Burgenland. There is an old story about this, in fact, it is the oldest epic known to humanity; the Epic of Gilgamesh, which involved two persons finding their way to this Burgenland. Steiner told this story for some reason; maybe, even, a very important reason.
thank you, Steve. your comments are always appreciated.