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未睇嘅書︰How to Sell a Contradiction

How to Sell a Contradiction, Franesco Berto

太多書買咗未睇,揀啲寫下點解買同想睇,鞭策自己盡快睇

📕=未睇 📙=借過嚟睇/睇過電子版 📖=睇咗|IG: mostly.unread

📕 How to Sell a Contradiction|Franesco Berto

喺傳統邏輯之中,矛盾係啲必須避免嘅嘢。有人講嘢前後矛盾,我哋通常都唔會相信,因為唔知信佢邊句好,甚至覺得佢思維混亂或者無誠信(當然有例外,有啲政治人物明顯講緊大話都有人信,但呢啲有其他原因)。

呢本書個名講點樣說服人接受矛盾(其實係歌詞嚟),其實係講緊關於矛盾嘅邏輯同哲學問題。邏輯學入面有一啲傳統邏輯無法處理嘅問題,例如說謊者悖論(Liar paradox),雖然學界現時都有幾套解決方案,但未有共識。

數理邏輯入面有一條「爆炸原理」(principle of explosion),指一個矛盾可以推論出任何命題,呢條原理係反對矛盾嘅理由之一,因為一接受某個矛盾句就會令成個系統都無意思(所以係「爆炸」)。「爆炸原理」喺好多套邏輯系統入面都成立,而唔成立嘅邏輯就叫做paraconsistent logic(都唔只一套)。

我見呢本書中後段會嘗試結合埋集合論同算術,之前睇過本書講finitism時都有提過inconsistent arithmetic,所以有興趣想睇下會點搞。

作者Franesco Berto寫過本講哥德爾定理嘅書,聽講都幾差下(我只睇咗本書後半),但喺一篇書評度見到佢留言話只係寫咗兩個月,原因係當時失業無錢,連搵人幫佢睇下內容都無(出版社有人幫佢睇英文)。見佢之後都仲有publications,同埋本書平,就覺得可以畀多次機會。

本身我以為呢本書係佢博士論文改寫,但查下見到有篇訪問佢話佢讀博係做Hegel嘅dialectic(都應該叫做關關地事?)。訪問入面佢表示好多年前已經放棄咗關於Hegel嘅研究計劃,因為無人會理,仲話分析哲學啲人認為Hegel唔值得睇,歐陸啲人就認為佢嘗試釐清Hegel係背叛(有講呢個係刻版印象)。

I stopped working on this, years ago. The main reason was that nobody was listening. The analytic folks (to employ the stereotypical labels) would keep thinking that Hegel is not worth reading. The continentals (ditto) would claim that my attempt at clarifying Hegel was a betrayal, a misunderstanding of Hegel’s “richness and depth”. So I gave up––life is too short.

(原刊於Instagram