Sunday, May 12, 2013

An Old Chestnut, re-roasted


… the familiar example that ‘Virtue is triangular’  is neither true nor false, but meaningless.
-- Hao Wang, From Mathematics to Philosophy  (1974), p. 105

This has been the unanimous opinion of philosophers, for at least the last hundred years.  But let us give it a second look.

‘Tis a truth universally acknowledged, that

=> There are two sides to every question. <=

Now:  Here it is Virtue that is in question;  and as such, it has -- like every other question -- two sides.
But:  Triangles have three sides.
Therefore:  Virtue is not triangular.    QED.

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