Lecture XXII

pp. 191-201

in: Leonard Nelson, A theory of philosophical fallacies, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

There is a subclass of intuitive philosophers that indulges in a kind of mysticism. Mystical philosophers (e.g. Spinoza, Hegel, Spengler) commit the same concept-swapping fallacy that has been discussed in this book, but in their case it is additionally sustained and fed by a glaring elementary logical error: replacing the ordinary predicative logic which Aristotle founded by a pseudo-logic of identity in which the distinction between concepts and things—what we say and that of which we say it—is rejected in favour of empty formulae in which concepts are said to be identical whilst at the same time different. Finally, it is shown that the kind of analysis pursued here leads to a new clarity on a general philosophical predicament: all forms of metaphysical dogmatism share the same prejudice as their arch-enemy, metaphysical scepticism.