Although there is ongoing debate about the mathematical influence of George Spencer-Brown's novel formalisms, one thing can hardly be denied: there is an intuitive and aesthetic simplicity to his notation which, if nothing else, deserves scholarly admiration and consideration. Of course, it is one thing to simply sit back and imbibe the simplicity of Spencer-Brown's "distinction" or "mark" and another thing entirely to meditate on what exactly makes these notions so intuitively pleasing and "amenable to common sense." I invite people to both indulge in the former and dabble in the latter, as we journey into an investigation of self-evidence as it relates to Spencer-Brown's notations and, moreover, logical notation in general. In this paper, I draw on C. S. Peirce's semiotics and philosophy of mathematics and Spencer-Brown's passion for maximally self-evident symbolism to craft a new breed of logical representation. I also highlight Hans Freudenthal's masterful "Lincos," an underappreciated language devised to be understood by any conceivable form of extraterrestrial life. In the end, I offer a style of self-evident logical notation that effectively collapses the boundary between metalanguage and object language, between definiendum and definiens.
Jonathan J. Mize is a scholar and author from Dallas, Texas. He has a BA in philosophy from the University of North Texas and has published several books and academic articles, primarily centered on logic, social philosophy and metaphysics. His most recent book is Modernity and the Rise of the Pocket God.
More info: www.jonathanmizeauthor.com
6 сен 2024
