Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Ruth Garrett Millikan, Ronald Dworkin and John Gray

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18 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
Human knowledge may not produce well-being; the examined life may not be worth living [Gray]
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / a. Beliefs
The function of beliefs is to produce beliefs-that-p when p [Millikan]
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 9. Naturalised Epistemology
Knowledge does not need minds or nervous systems; it is found in all living things [Gray]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 5. Against Free Will
The will hardly ever does anything; most of our life just happens to us [Gray]
18. Thought / C. Content / 11. Teleological Semantics
Biosemantics says content is useful mapping from a producer to a consumer system [Millikan, by Schulte]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / b. Liberal individualism
Dworkin believed we should promote equality, to increase autonomy [Dworkin, by Kekes]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle
Nowadays we identify the free life with the good life [Gray]
25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 1. Grounds of equality
We can treat people as equals, or actually treat them equally [Dworkin, by Grayling]
Treating people as equals is the one basic value of all plausible political theories [Dworkin, by Kymlicka]
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 4. Taxation
If we assess what people would buy in an imaginary insurance market, our taxes could copy it [Dworkin, by Kymlicka]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 4. Ecology
Over forty percent of the Earth's living tissue is human [Gray]
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism
Free atheism should start by questioning its faith in humanity [Gray]
29. Religion / A. Polytheistic Religion / 4. Dualist Religion
Gnosticism has a supreme creator God, giving way to a possibly hostile Demiurge [Gray]
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 2. Judaism
Judaism only became monotheistic around 550 BCE [Gray]
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity
What was our original sin, and how could Christ's suffering redeem it? [Gray]
Without Christianity we lose the idea that human history has a meaning [Gray]
Christians introduced the idea that a religion needs a creed [Gray]
29. Religion / C. Spiritual Disciplines / 3. Buddhism
Buddhism has no divinity or souls, and the aim is to lose the illusion of a self [Gray]