Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Benjamin Constant, Bill Brewer and David Marshall

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these philosophers

---

4 ideas

13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 4. Foundationalism / c. Empirical foundations

8875	Sense experiences must have conceptual content, since they are possible reasons for judgements [Brewer,B]
	Full Idea: Given that sense experiential states do provide reasons for empirical beliefs, they must have conceptual content, ...where a mental state with conceptual content is one where the content is of a possible judgement by the subject.
	From: Bill Brewer (Perceptual experience has conceptual content [2005], I)
	A reaction: This is, I believe, wrong. Even complex observations, like a pool of blood, only become reasons when they have been interpreted. Otherwise they are just the raw ingredients of evidence. How could an uninterpreted red patch be a 'reason'?

15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / a. Consciousness

6668	If the present does not exist, then consciousness must be memory of the immediate past [Marshall]
	Full Idea: Given the paradoxical nature of the 'present' moment, maybe we should understand ALL consciousness as memory, with the split second of the 'specious present' being very vivid and very brief memory, with the rest of the mind remembering in lower degrees.
	From: David Marshall (talk [2004]), quoted by PG - Db (ideas)
	A reaction: This strikes me as a highly plausible, and very illuminating remark. For the time paradox, see Ideas 1904 and 5102. Anyone researching consciousness in the brain should think about this, because it will just be a special sort of memory neurons.

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / b. Liberal individualism

22595	Liberty is the triumph of the individual, over both despotic government and enslaving majorities [Constant]
	Full Idea: Lliberty is the triumph of the individual, as much over a government which seeks to rule by despotic methods, as over the masses who seek to render the minority the slave of the majority.
	From: Benjamin Constant (Principles of Politics [1806]), quoted by Ian Dunt - How to be a Liberal 4
	A reaction: [No page given] Dunt describes Constant's book as the first really systematic account of liberalism. Very important to have rights against the majority, as well as against government.

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / c. Liberal equality

22597	Minority rights are everyone's rights, because we all have turns in the minority [Constant]
	Full Idea: To defend the rights of minorities is to defend the rights of all. Everyone in turn finds himself in the minority.
	From: Benjamin Constant (Principles of Politics [1806]), quoted by Ian Dunt - How to be a Liberal 4
	A reaction: Very conformist people, who are often the most oppressive, are rarely in the minority, and are unlikely to be impressed by this idea.