RE: virus: PSR

Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Wed, 5 Nov 1997 19:38:49 -0000


> From: Wade T.Smith[SMTP:wade_smith@harvard.edu]
>
> >PSR (proof for sufficient reason) is an argument by Liebnez
> >which states that if something is proposed then sufficient reason for
> it's
> >proposal is all that is needed as proof of it's existence
>
> Need we go any further in our quest for the futility of philosophy?
>
sufficient reason, principle of: Principle usually associated
with Leibniz... It is sometimes described as the principle
that nothing can be so without there being a reason why it
is so.[1]

Is that futile? By the way, Leibniz also discovered the
differential calculus. And coordinate geometry is due
to Descartes. Ultimately, all branches of knowledge
can legitimately be viewed as specialised subdivisions
of philosophy, both because it is the study of the
principles that underly them, and also because,
historically, they developed from it. You can say that,
now they've branched off, nothing useful is left in it,
but to do that convincingly you'd have to demonstrate
rather a good knowledge of it.

Robin
[1] The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Simon
Blackburn, OUP, 1994.