Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Anaxarchus, Thomas Aquinas and Michael Lockwood

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2 ideas

19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 5. Meaning as Verification
Perhaps logical positivism showed that there is no dividing line between science and metaphysics [Lockwood]
     Full Idea: If the logical positivists established anything it is that there is no way of demarcating science from metaphysics.
     From: Michael Lockwood (Mind, Brain and the Quantum [1989], p.313)
     A reaction: So many problems arise for philosophers because of the passion for 'demarcating' things. Close study, experiments, statistics and measurements occur in every walk of life.
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 3. Predicates
The mind constructs complete attributions, based on the unified elements of the real world [Aquinas]
     Full Idea: Attribution is something mind brings to completion by constructing propositional connections and disconnections, basing itself on real-world unity possessed by the things being attributed to one another.
     From: Thomas Aquinas (De Ente et Essentia (Being and Essence) [1267], p.102)
     A reaction: This compromise story seems to me to be exactly right. I take it that we respond to the real joints of nature, but using thought and language which is riddled with convention.