Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Eucleides, George Dickie and Michael Faraday

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6 ideas

19. Language / B. Reference / 1. Reference theories

1757	The Electra: she knows this man, but not that he is her brother [Eucleides, by Diog. Laertius]
	Full Idea: The 'Electra': Electra knows that Orestes is her brother, but not that this man is Orestes, so she knows and does not know her brother simultaneously.
	From: report of Eucleides (fragments/reports [c.410 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 02.Eu.4
	A reaction: Hence we distinguish 'know of', 'know that' and 'know how'. Hence Russell makes 'knowledge by acquaintance' fundamental, and descriptions come later.

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 2. Aesthetic Attitude

20443	The aesthetic attitude is nothing more than paying close attention [Dickie, by Giovannelli]
	Full Idea: Once analysed, Dickie claimed, the so-called aesthetic attitude is not special at all, but is rather just a matter of close attention and focus on the subject.
	From: report of George Dickie (The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude [1964]) by Alessandro Giovannelli - Some contemporary developments (aesthetics) 1
	A reaction: Sounds wrong. If a paint specialist gives close attention to a painting, they do not necessarily have an aesthetic view of it. You need to know the aim of the activity, just as when you watch a game.

21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 6. Art as Institution

20329	A work of art is an artifact created for the artworld [Dickie]
	Full Idea: A work of art is an artifact of a kind created to be presented to an artworld public.
	From: George Dickie (The New Institutional Theory of Art [1983], p.53)
	A reaction: This is the culminating definition in his paper, deriving originally from Danto, and an improvement of his earlier more complex definition. Since this definition amounts to 'this is art if I say it is art', it doesn't seem to reveal much.

8114	The institutional theory says only a competent expert can decree something to be an art work [Dickie, by Gardner]
	Full Idea: Dickie's institutional theory of art says that something is a work of art if and only if it has had that status conferred on it by a competent member of the artworld.
	From: report of George Dickie (Introduction to Aesthetics [1997], Ch.8) by Sebastian Gardner - Aesthetics 3.1
	A reaction: The idea that a single 'competent' person can do this sounds daft, and probably circular. A consensus in the artworld sounds more plausible, but this still leaves the revolutionary genius, who - in retrospect - produced unrecognised 'art'.

22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / b. Types of good

3028	The chief good is unity, sometimes seen as prudence, or God, or intellect [Eucleides]
	Full Idea: The chief good is unity, which is known by several names, for at one time people call it prudence, at another time God, at another intellect, and so on.
	From: Eucleides (fragments/reports [c.410 BCE]), quoted by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 02.9.2
	A reaction: So the chief good is what unites and focuses our moral actions. Kant calls that 'the will'.

27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 2. Electrodynamics / b. Fields

15314	Faraday's single field of variable forces introduces a criterion of Unity into what is ultimate [Faraday, by Harré/Madden]
	Full Idea: In Faraday lines of force picture the directional structure of powers,...so the fundamental entity is a single, unified field. ...A new criterion of the ultimate has stepped in: Unity. The universal field is still the final explanation, but not invariant.
	From: report of Michael Faraday (Experimental Researches in Electricity [1859]) by Harré,R./Madden,E.H. - Causal Powers 9.II.B
	A reaction: Almost Parmenides, except that the field is not invariant. But that was always the ancient objection to the One - that it offered no explanation of change.