Combining Philosophers

Ideas for H.Putnam/P.Oppenheim, Kurt Vonnegut and Laurence Bonjour

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3 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 3. Pure Reason
Perceiving necessary connections is the essence of reasoning [Bonjour]
     Full Idea: If one never in fact grasps any necessary connections between anything, it is hard to see what reasoning could possible amount to.
     From: Laurence Bonjour (In Defence of Pure Reason [1998], §4.3)
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence
Coherence can't be validated by appeal to coherence [Bonjour]
     Full Idea: The epistemic authority of coherence cannot itself be established by appeal to coherence.
     From: Laurence Bonjour (In Defence of Pure Reason [1998], §3.7 n50)
     A reaction: The standard approach amongs modern philosophers (following, I think, Kripke) is to insist on 'intuition' as basic, despite all its problems. I have no better suggestion.
For any given area, there seem to be a huge number of possible coherent systems of beliefs [Bonjour]
     Full Idea: The 2nd standard objection to coherence is 'alternative coherent systems' - that there will be indefinitely many possible systems of belief in relation to any given subject area, each as internally coherent as the others.
     From: Laurence Bonjour (A Version of Internalist Foundationalism [2003], 3.2)
     A reaction: This seems to imply that you could just invent an explanation, as long as it was coherent, but presumably good coherence is highly sensitive to the actual evidence. Bonjour observes that many of these systems would not survive over time.