Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Hermarchus, Terry Pinkard and Bas C. van Fraassen

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7 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / c. Eighteenth century philosophy
Wolff's version of Leibniz dominated mid-18th C German thought [Pinkard]
     Full Idea: The dominant philosophy of mid-eighteenth century Germany was Wolffianism, a codified and almost legalistically organised form of Leibnizian thought.
     From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], Intro)
     A reaction: Kant grew up in this intellectual climate.
Romantics explored beautiful subjectivity, and the re-enchantment of nature [Pinkard]
     Full Idea: Early Romanticism can be seen as the exploration of subjective interiority and as the re-enchantment of nature (as organic). Hegel said they had the idea of a 'beautiful soul', which (he said) either paralysed action, or made them smug.
     From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], 06)
     A reaction: [compressed, inc Note 1] A major dilemma of life is the extent of our social engagement, because it makes life worthwhile, but pollutes the mind with continual conflicts.
The combination of Kant and the French Revolution was an excited focus for German philosophy [Pinkard]
     Full Idea: After the French Revolution, philosophy suddenly became the key rallying point for an entire generation of German intellectuals, who had been reading Kant as the harbinger of a new order.
     From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], Pt II Intro)
     A reaction: Kant was a harbinger because he offered an autonomous status to each individual, rather than being subservient to a social order.
1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / d. Nineteenth century philosophy
In Hegel's time naturalism was called 'Spinozism' [Pinkard]
     Full Idea: In Hegel's time the shorthand for the Naturalistic worldview was 'Spinozism'.
     From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], 10)
     A reaction: Spinozism hit Germany like a bomb in 1786, when it was reported that the poet Hölderlin was a fan of Spinoza.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
Philosophy is a value- and attitude-driven enterprise [Fraassen]
     Full Idea: Philosophy is a value- and attitude-driven enterprise; philosophy is in false consciousness when it sees itself otherwise.
     From: Bas C. van Fraassen (The Empirical Stance [2002], 1.5)
     A reaction: It is one thing to be permeated with values, and another to be value-driven. Truth, reason and logic are (I take it) granted a high value in philosophy, just as the offside rule is in football. I am trying to place reality in charge, not humanity.
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 2. Possibility of Metaphysics
Is it likely that a successful, coherent, explanatory ontological hypothesis is true? [Fraassen]
     Full Idea: How likely is it that a truly successful, coherent, explanatory ontological hypothesis is true?
     From: Bas C. van Fraassen (The Empirical Stance [2002], 1.5)
     A reaction: Van Fraassen announces "I reject metaphysic" (p.3), so we know where he stands. Anything becomes less certain as it moves to a higher level of generality. Should we abandon generalisation? There is much illumination in metaphysics.
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 1. Nature of Analysis
Analytic philosophy has an exceptional arsenal of critical tools [Fraassen]
     Full Idea: Analytical philosophy can rightly pride itself on having produced the greatest critical arsenal the world has ever known.
     From: Bas C. van Fraassen (The Empirical Stance [2002], 1.6)
     A reaction: This is, of course, in the context of a scathing attack on the desire to use analytical methods to do speculative metaphysics. I say that if these are the best tools, then we should push forward with them to see how far we can get.