Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Susan Haack, Yale Kamisar and Roderick Firth

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


5 ideas

3. Truth / C. Correspondence Truth / 3. Correspondence Truth critique
Logical truth seems much less likely to 'correspond to the facts' than factual truth does [Haack]
     Full Idea: It is surely less plausible to suppose that logical truth consists in correspondence to the facts than that 'factual' truth does.
     From: Susan Haack (Philosophy of Logics [1978], 7.6)
3. Truth / F. Semantic Truth / 1. Tarski's Truth / a. Tarski's truth definition
The same sentence could be true in one language and meaningless in another, so truth is language-relative [Haack]
     Full Idea: The definition of truth will have to be, Tarski argues, relative to a language, for one and the same sentence may be true in one language, and false or meaningless in another.
     From: Susan Haack (Philosophy of Logics [1978], 7.5)
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'.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 2. Euthanasia
People will volunteer for euthanasia because they think other people want them dead [Kamisar]
     Full Idea: In the process of voluntary euthanasia we will sweep up some who are not really tired of life, but think others are tired of them.
     From: Yale Kamisar (Against Euthanasia [1958], p.78)
     A reaction: We could permit such choices. Or set up systems to eliminate such cases.
We only allow voluntary euthanasia to someone who is both sane and crazed by pain [Kamisar]
     Full Idea: It seems that voluntary euthanasia can only be carried out by someone who is both sane, and crazed by pain.
     From: Yale Kamisar (Against Euthanasia [1958], p.77)
     A reaction: A fair point, despite its obvious exaggeration. How much pain must someone experience before we permit them to choose euthanasia?