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SUCH_A_THING_AS_KNOWLEDGE

                                             September 1-8, 2020

                                                 FOUND_MATH

Bertrand Russell started out looking
for some form of certain knowledge...

Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" (1918):

    "I came to philosophy through mathematics, or
    rather through the wish to find some reason to
    believe in the truth of mathematics. From early
    youth, I had an ardent desire to believe that
    there can be such a thing as knowledge, combined
    with a great difficulty in accepting much that
    passes as know- ledge. It seemed clear that the
    best chance of finding indubitable truth would be
    in pure mathematics, yet some of Euclid’s axioms
    were obviously doubtful, and the infinitesimal        I have some sympathy
    calculus, as I was taught it, was a mass of           for that complaint
    sophisms, which I could not bring myself to           about calc seeming
    regard as anything else."                             like "a mass of
                                                          sophisms".  The way I
                                                          was introduced to the
I think he's always had trouble shaking off this          concept of "taking a
dream completely, though he was far too smart not         limit", it struck me
to notice the problems:                                   as rather hand-wavey,
                                                          and I went with it
    "I do not pretend to start with precise               more on faith than
    questions. I do not think you can start               anything else.
    with anything precise. You have to achieve
    such precision as you can, as you go along."


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