Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Roderick Firth, Jean Calvin and Roger Scruton

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7 ideas

12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 5. A Priori Synthetic
Maybe our knowledge of truth and causation is synthetic a priori [Scruton]
     Full Idea: 'Every event has a cause' and 'truth is correspondence to facts' are candidates for being synthetic a priori knowledge.
     From: Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], 13.2)
12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 1. Perception
Perception (which involves an assessment) is a higher state than sensation [Scruton]
     Full Idea: Perception is a higher state than sensation: it involves not just a response to the outer world, but also an assessment of it.
     From: Roger Scruton (Animal Rights and Wrongs [1996], p.14)
     A reaction: This seems to me a simple but really important distinction, even though it wickedly uses the word 'higher', which Greeks like but post-Humeans struggle with. But we all know it is higher, don't we?
12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / c. Primary qualities
Touch only seems to reveal primary qualities [Scruton]
     Full Idea: Touch seems to deliver a purely primary-quality account of the world.
     From: Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], 24)
     A reaction: Interesting, though a little over-confident. It seems occasionally possible for touch to be an illusion.
12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / e. Primary/secondary critique
We only conceive of primary qualities as attached to secondary qualities [Scruton]
     Full Idea: Bradley argued that we cannot conceive of primary qualities except as attached to secondary qualities.
     From: Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], 10.1)
If primary and secondary qualities are distinct, what has the secondary qualities? [Scruton]
     Full Idea: If primary and secondary qualities are distinct, what do secondary qualities inhere in?
     From: Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], Ch.10 n)
     A reaction: What is the problem? A pin causes me pain, but I know the pain isn't in the pin. It is the same with colour. It is a mental property, if you like, triggered by a wavelength of radiation.
12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 3. Representation
The representational theory says perceptual states are intentional states [Scruton]
     Full Idea: The representational theory is the unsurprising view that perceptual states are intentional, like beliefs, emotions and desires.
     From: Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], 23.3)
12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 4. Sense Data / d. Sense-data problems
We are not conscious of pure liquidity, but of the liquidity of water [Firth]
     Full Idea: We are not conscious of liquidity, coldness, and solidity, but of the liquidity of water, the coldness of ice, and the solidity of rocks.
     From: Roderick Firth (Sense Data and the Percept Theory [1949]), quoted by Howard Robinson - Perception 1.7
     A reaction: A nice point, but it might not be entirely true in a blindfold test, where one might only report properties like 'sticky' or 'warm', without having any clear concept of the substance being experienced. Firth is proposing the 'percept theory'.