From: "Louis Irwin" <LIrwin1-AT-ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: BHA: Re: Kant's realism
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 20:33:05 -0500


Jan,

I would like to take issue with the following:

>That Bhaskar, in renouncing the untouchable status of logic, is
>heading in the right direction, is imo nicely shown by the dutch
>mathematician Brouwer. He advocated the view (and proved) that
>a consequent deployment of Aristotelean logic would inevitably
>lead to illicit ontological claims (in math.). Brouwer therefor
>rejected the arch of Aristotelean logic viz. 'the principle of the
>excluded middle' (and the rest of it).
>
>    [in fact Brouwer's argument is a pure example of Bhaskar's
>    EF, both warning us not to make illicit ontological claims on
>    pure epistemo-logical grounds.]

Brouwer did not of course reject logic, merely the classical version of it,
as you point out.  Yet Brouwer was notorious for founding his non-classical,
intuitionistic logic on epistemic principles, and Brouwerian logic is the
antithesis of a realist position.

Louis Irwin




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