Forms

Cologne Cathedral: Carforhiredotcodotuk

BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

LANGER, SUSANNE K (1953)(1967) An Introduction to Symbolic Logic, Dover Publications, New York.

Preface

And online forms are often not enjoyable to fill out and many times not all that helpful, either.

As I mentioned last article, I plan to review this text and to continue to review the Pirie philosophical text.

Reviewing two philosophy texts is a research, writing, learning phase. I have wanted to learn symbolic logic more thoroughly since dabbling with it during my United Kingdom theses education days, and the Pirie text on fallacies is a book I bought fairly recently at a book store. Both texts will take time to go through properly.

I will still post theology, Bible and philosophy of religion articles when they come to mind and may post a documented type article on Satire And Theology, but I tend to keep the two site approaches different to avoid copying myself.

In Chapter 1: The Study of forms

The Importance of forms

'All knowledge, all sciences and arts have their beginning in the recognition that ordinary, familiar things may take on different forms.' (21).  Different forms of the same thing may be so widely diverse in appearance, it may be difficult to think of them as essentially the same substance. (21). Science treats these as the variants of the same stuff. (21).

Langer opines there are two kinds of knowledge:

Knowledge of things. (22). Direct intimacy which our senses give us. Empirical knowledge (my add).

An example is given that a baby can know its mother that feeds him/her, but know nothing about its, his/her, mother. (22).

Knowledge about them. (22). This requires more than 'direct sensuous' (22) knowledge.

The author states that 'transformations' or 'transformation' (22-23) explains changes in form. (22-23).

The growth of science demonstrates the importance of forms, according to the author. (23).

There are variations in forms that have been discovered through scientific discovery, and this is noted as very important by Langer.
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Form Theory

Blackburn writes that philosophically form theory can be traced back to Plato and his doctrines (143), as well as Pythagorean theory (Pythagoras) with the 'conception of form as the key to physical nature'. (143). It (form theory) is stated to also be associated with a sceptical doctrine of Cratylus, according to Aristotle. (143). Aristotle one of the teachers of Plato. (143).

'Plato attempts to present a way in which the forms of things are intelligible but abstract shared features. Ordinary things gain their natures by either 'imitating' forms (which then become thought of as transcendent and somehow independent of the sensible world) or 'participating' in them (in which case they are immanent, present in things, and perhaps less mysterious).' (163).

Form theory can be very theoretical on the philosophical front, in particular without the guidance of divine revelation.

This from my Biblical Christian theological and philosophical worldview and bias.

A valid form for an argument, as example, is a form that has practical use in mathematics, theology and philosophy.

I could opine theologically and in the context of philosophy of religion that theorizing on the forms and ontological nature of God's created angelic beings that are non-corporeal and yet finite, beyond what Scripture has already documented, would be very speculative. Not very practical. My view being the Scriptural revelation had ended with the closing of the New Testament and New Testament era.

Therefore, the forms and ontological nature of angelic beings is likely not going to be further discovered by the use of reason and speculation alone in this present realm.