# Charles Hoskinson, Favorite Philosophers ## Charles Hoskinson, Favorite Philosophers - IN DRAFT #### Lex Fridman Podcast #192 {% embed url="" %} Summary and analysis by Stephen Whitenstall An extensive interview with Charles Hoskinson by Lex Fridman aired last week. The podcast covers many subjects and lasts over 4 hours. Different topics of conversation are timestamped on Lex Fridman's YouTube channel and well worth a listen. In this forum post I would like to summarise the topic ["Favorite Philosophers"](https://youtu.be/FKh8hjJNhWc?t=434), provide some commentary and references for further reading. ### Favorite Philosophers Lex starts by quoting Charles as mentioning **Betrand Russell** ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell), [Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy - SEP](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/)) and **Saul Kripke** ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Kripke),[The Information Philosopher](https://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/kripke/)) as "*two of your favourite philosophers*" and asks Charles to comment on what ideas of theirs he finds insightful. Charles says that "you can't really talk about Russell and Saul without mentioning **Wittgenstein**" ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein), [SEP](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/), [The Information Philosopher](https://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/wittgenstein/)) “And **Tarski**” ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tarski), [SEP](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tarski/)). Together these philosophers increased the level of precision we have in formal languages and language in general. ### Wittgenstein “*Wittgenstein makes no sense at all to me.*” – Charles. **My commentary** – Wittgenstein in effect founded **logical atomism** with his **Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921)** – the intent of which is stated at the beginning as “*The world is the totality of facts, not of things.*” Which is referred to as the “*Picture Theory of Language*”. Later Wittgenstein revised his views (dubbing the Tractus “*dogmatic*”) and went on to write his **Philosophical Investigations” (1951)** which introduced the concepts “*Meaning as use*”, “*Language-games*”, “*Family Resemblance*”, “*Rule-following*”, “*Private Language*” and “*Forms of Life*” into analytic philosophy. “*Kripke has Kripkenstein*” – Charles. **My commentary** – Charles is referring here to Saul Kripke’s **Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (1982)**. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein_on_Rules_and_Private_Language)) which, at its core, concerns the “*rule-following paradox*”. This paradox is a sceptical proposition concerning the possibility of following rules in language: “*.. no course of action could be determined by a rule, because any course of action can be made out to accord with the rule.*” (Philosophical Investigations §201a). ### Modal logic “*At least there I have modal logic …the little boxes and I have the diamonds. I can do a computation … and I can reason about what people are saying. Really it was all about precision and the nature of truth, precision and the nature of possibility ...*” – Charles **My commentary** – Charles refers here to two of the fundamental symbols of modal logic (), *necessity* “the little box” and *possibility* “the diamonds”. “*How far a formal language can take you ...*” – Charles ### David Hilbert “*David Hilbert also did the same thing …*” – Charles **My commentary** – Charles refers here to “Hilbert’s Program” () that is, the formalization of all of mathematics in axiomatic form. ### Alfred North Whitehead “*Russell got his career started with working with Alfred North Whitehead, a logician. There was this whole desire in late 19th century mathematics.*" ### What is the difference between philosophy and computer science?