Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Myles F. Burnyeat, Eric R. Scerri and Simon Critchley

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53 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 2. Ancient Philosophy / b. Pre-Socratic philosophy
Philosophy really got started as the rival mode of discourse to tragedy [Critchley]
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / d. Philosophy as puzzles
Philosophy begins in disappointment, notably in religion and politics [Critchley]
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 8. Humour
Humour can give a phenomenological account of existence, and point to change [Critchley]
Humour is practically enacted philosophy [Critchley]
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
If infatuation with science leads to bad scientism, its rejection leads to obscurantism [Critchley]
Scientism is the view that everything can be explained causally through scientific method [Critchley]
Science gives us an excessively theoretical view of life [Critchley]
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 1. Continental Philosophy
To meet the division in our life, try the Subject, Nature, Spirit, Will, Power, Praxis, Unconscious, or Being [Critchley]
The French keep returning, to Hegel or Nietzsche or Marx [Critchley]
German idealism aimed to find a unifying principle for Kant's various dualisms [Critchley]
Since Hegel, continental philosophy has been linked with social and historical enquiry. [Critchley]
Continental philosophy fights the threatened nihilism in the critique of reason [Critchley]
Continental philosophy is based on critique, praxis and emancipation [Critchley]
Continental philosophy has a bad tendency to offer 'one big thing' to explain everything [Critchley]
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 2. Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a technique of redescription which clarifies our social world [Critchley]
Phenomenology uncovers and redescribes the pre-theoretical layer of life [Critchley]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 4. Prediction
If a theory can be fudged, so can observations [Scerri]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 4. Paradigm
The periodic system is the big counterexample to Kuhn's theory of revolutionary science [Scerri]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation
Scientists eventually seek underlying explanations for every pattern [Scerri]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / a. Best explanation
The periodic table suggests accommodation to facts rates above prediction [Scerri]
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism
Intellectualism is an excessive emphasis on reasoning in moral philosophy [Burnyeat]
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature
Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English [Critchley]
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
Interesting art is always organised around ethical demands [Critchley]
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / d. Ethical theory
The problems is not justifying ethics, but motivating it. Why should a self seek its good? [Critchley]
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value
Food first, then ethics [Critchley]
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 2. Nihilism
Perceiving meaninglessness is an achievement, which can transform daily life [Critchley]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 2. Anarchism
The state, law, bureaucracy and capital are limitations on life, so I prefer federalist anarchism [Critchley]
Anarchism used to be libertarian (especially for sexuality), but now concerns responsibility [Critchley]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 3. Conservatism
Belief that humans are wicked leads to authoritarian politics [Critchley]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 1. Natural Kinds
Natural kinds are what are differentiated by nature, and not just by us [Scerri]
If elements are natural kinds, might the groups of the periodic table also be natural kinds? [Scerri]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / a. Scientific essentialism
The colour of gold is best explained by relativistic effects due to fast-moving inner-shell electrons [Scerri]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 4. Standard Model / a. Concept of matter
The stability of nuclei can be estimated through their binding energy [Scerri]
If all elements are multiples of one (of hydrogen), that suggests once again that matter is unified [Scerri]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 1. Chemistry
Does radioactivity show that only physics can explain chemistry? [Scerri]
A big chemistry idea is that covalent bonds are shared electrons, not transfer of electrons [Scerri]
How can poisonous elements survive in the nutritious compound they compose? [Scerri]
Periodicity and bonding are the two big ideas in chemistry [Scerri]
Chemistry does not work from general principles, but by careful induction from large amounts of data [Scerri]
The electron is the main source of chemical properties [Scerri]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 2. Modern Elements
It is now thought that all the elements have literally evolved from hydrogen [Scerri]
19th C views said elements survived abstractly in compounds, but also as 'material ingredients' [Scerri]
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 3. Periodic Table
Elements were ordered by equivalent weight; later by atomic weight; finally by atomic number [Scerri]
Moseley, using X-rays, showed that atomic number ordered better than atomic weight [Scerri]
Some suggested basing the new periodic table on isotopes, not elements [Scerri]
Elements in the table are grouped by having the same number of outer-shell electrons [Scerri]
Orthodoxy says the periodic table is explained by quantum mechanics [Scerri]
To explain the table, quantum mechanics still needs to explain order of shell filling [Scerri]
Since 99.96% of the universe is hydrogen and helium, the periodic table hardly matters [Scerri]
Pauli explained the electron shells, but not the lengths of the periods in the table [Scerri]
Moseley showed the elements progress in units, and thereby clearly identified the gaps [Scerri]
Elements are placed in the table by the number of positive charges - the atomic number [Scerri]
The best classification needs the deepest and most general principles of the atoms [Scerri]