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Single Idea 10237

[filed under theme 2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence ]

Full Idea

I take 'coherence' to be a primitive, intuitive notion, not reduced to something formal, and so I do not venture a rigorous definition of it.

Gist of Idea

Coherence is a primitive, intuitive notion, not reduced to something formal

Source

Stewart Shapiro (Philosophy of Mathematics [1997], 4.8)

Book Ref

Shapiro,Stewart: 'Philosophy of Mathematics:structure and ontology' [OUP 1997], p.135


A Reaction

I agree strongly with this. Best to talk of 'the space of reasons', or some such. Rationality extends far beyond what can be formally defined. Coherence is the last court of appeal in rational thought.


The 24 ideas with the same theme [principles of mutual support between propositions]:

A rational account is essentially a weaving together of things with names [Plato]
Maybe everything could be demonstrated, if demonstration can be reciprocal or circular [Aristotle]
If one proposition is deduced from another, they are more certain together than alone [Russell]
Full coherence might involve consistency and mutual entailment of all propositions [Blanshard, by Dancy,J]
Coherence is consilience, simplicity, analogy, and fitting into a web of belief [Smart]
We need comprehensiveness, as well as self-coherence [Smart]
Reasoning aims at increasing explanatory coherence [Harman]
Reason conservatively: stick to your beliefs, and prefer reasoning that preserves most of them [Harman]
A coherent conceptual scheme contains best explanations of most of your beliefs [Harman]
A false proposition isn't truer because it is part of a coherent system [Cartwright,R]
If the only aim was consistent beliefs then new evidence and experiments would be irrelevant [Goldman]
We may end up with a huge theory of carefully constructed falsehoods [Fraassen]
We can't attain a coherent system by lopping off any beliefs that won't fit [Sosa]
Why should we prefer coherent beliefs? [Klein,P]
The negation of all my beliefs about my current headache would be fully coherent [Sosa]
Coherence can't be validated by appeal to coherence [Bonjour]
For any given area, there seem to be a huge number of possible coherent systems of beliefs [Bonjour]
Coherence is a primitive, intuitive notion, not reduced to something formal [Shapiro]
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]
Coherentists seek relations among beliefs that are simple, conservative and explanatory [Foley]
How can multiple statements, none of which is tenable, conjoin to yield a tenable conclusion? [Elgin]
Statements that are consistent, cotenable and supportive are roughly true [Elgin]