Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Michael Stanford, Paul Thagard and Johann Gottfried Herder

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


20 ideas

1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis
Thoughts are learnt through words, so language shows the limits and shape of our knowledge [Herder]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence
Coherence problems have positive and negative restraints; solutions maximise constraint satisfaction [Thagard]
Coherence is explanatory, deductive, conceptual, analogical, perceptual, and deliberative [Thagard]
Explanatory coherence needs symmetry,explanation,analogy,data priority, contradiction,competition,acceptance [Thagard]
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 6. Verisimilitude
Verisimilitude comes from including more phenomena, and revealing what underlies [Thagard]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 1. Scientific Theory
Neither a priori rationalism nor sense data empiricism account for scientific knowledge [Thagard]
14. Science / C. Induction / 6. Bayes's Theorem
Bayesian inference is forced to rely on approximations [Thagard]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation
Audience-relative explanation, or metaphysical explanation based on information? [Stanford]
Explanation is for curiosity, control, understanding, to make meaningful, or to give authority [Stanford]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / c. Explanations by coherence
1: Coherence is a symmetrical relation between two propositions [Thagard, by Smart]
2: An explanation must wholly cohere internally, and with the new fact [Thagard, by Smart]
3: If an analogous pair explain another analogous pair, then they all cohere [Thagard, by Smart]
4: For coherence, observation reports have a degree of intrinsic acceptability [Thagard, by Smart]
5: Contradictory propositions incohere [Thagard, by Smart]
6: A proposition's acceptability depends on its coherence with a system [Thagard, by Smart]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / j. Explanations by reduction
We can explain by showing constitution, as well as showing causes [Stanford]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / a. Best explanation
The best theory has the highest subjective (Bayesian) probability? [Thagard]
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 6. Meaning as Use
Study the use of words, not their origins [Herder]
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value
We cannot attain all the ideals of every culture, so there cannot be a perfect life [Herder, by Berlin]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 7. Communitarianism / a. Communitarianism
Herder invented the idea of being rooted in (or cut off from) a home or a group [Herder, by Berlin]