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Single Idea 3884
[filed under theme 3. Truth / E. Pragmatic Truth / 1. Pragmatic Truth
]
Full Idea
The pragmatist does not really have a theory of truth.
Clarification
Pragmatism defines truth as 'what works'
Gist of Idea
The pragmatist does not really have a theory of truth
Source
Roger Scruton (Modern Philosophy:introduction and survey [1994], 9.4)
Book Ref
Scruton,Roger: 'Modern Philosophy: introduction and survey' [Sinclair-Stevenson 1994], p.106
The
107 ideas
from Roger Scruton
4295
|
We favour our own animals over foreign ones because we see them as fellow citizens
[Scruton]
|
4296
|
Brutal animal sports are banned because they harm the personality of the watcher
[Scruton]
|
4263
|
Many of the stranger forms of life (e.g. worms) interest us only as a species, not as individuals
[Scruton]
|
4264
|
Perception (which involves an assessment) is a higher state than sensation
[Scruton]
|
4265
|
If an animal has beliefs, that implies not only that it can make mistakes, but that it can learn from them
[Scruton]
|
4266
|
Having beliefs involves recognition, expectation and surprise
[Scruton]
|
4267
|
Conditioning may change behaviour without changing the mind
[Scruton]
|
4268
|
Animals command our sympathy and moral concern initially because of their intentionality
[Scruton]
|
4269
|
An emotion is a motive which is also a feeling
[Scruton]
|
4270
|
Do we use reason to distinguish people from animals, or use that difference to define reason?
[Scruton]
|
4271
|
There is consciousness whenever behaviour must be explained in terms of mental activity
[Scruton]
|
4272
|
Our concept of a person is derived from Roman law
[Scruton]
|
4273
|
Kant's Moral Law is the rules rational beings would accept when trying to live by agreement
[Scruton]
|
4274
|
The modern virtues are courage, prudence, wisdom, temperance, justice, charity and loyalty
[Scruton]
|
4276
|
An animal has individuality if it is nameable, and advanced animals can respond to their name
[Scruton]
|
4277
|
I may avoid stepping on a spider or flower, but fellow-feeling makes me protect a rabbit
[Scruton]
|
4278
|
Lucky animals are eaten by large predators, the less lucky starve, and worst is death by small predators
[Scruton]
|
4279
|
We can easily remove the risk of suffering from an animal's life, but we shouldn't do it
[Scruton]
|
4280
|
Utilitarianism is wrong precisely because it can't distinguish animals from people
[Scruton]
|
4281
|
Utilitarianism says we can't blame Stalin yet, but such a theory is a sick joke
[Scruton]
|
4282
|
Morality is not a sort of calculation, it is what sets the limits to when calculation is appropriate
[Scruton]
|
4283
|
Sympathy can undermine the moral order just as much as crime does
[Scruton]
|
4284
|
All moral life depends ultimately on piety, which is our recognition of our own dependence
[Scruton]
|
4285
|
As soon as we drop self-interest and judge impartially, we find ourselves agreeing about conflicts
[Scruton]
|
4286
|
Only just people will drop their own self-interests when faced with an impartial verdict
[Scruton]
|
4287
|
Utilitarianism merely guides us (by means of sympathy) when the moral law is silent
[Scruton]
|
4288
|
Many breeds of animals have needs which our own ancestors planted in them
[Scruton]
|
4289
|
Sheep and cattle live comfortable lives, and die an enviably easy death
[Scruton]
|
4290
|
That which can only be done by a callous person, ought not to be done
[Scruton]
|
4291
|
Letting your dog kill wild rats, and keeping rats for your dog to kill, are very different
[Scruton]
|
4292
|
Concern for one animal may harm the species, if the individual is part of a bigger problem
[Scruton]
|
4293
|
Introducing a natural means of controlling animal population may not be very compassionate
[Scruton]
|
4294
|
Animals are outside the community of rights, but we still have duties towards them
[Scruton]
|
18541
|
Beauty (unlike truth and goodness) is questionable as an ultimate value
[Scruton]
|
18546
|
The pleasure taken in beauty also aims at understanding and valuing
[Scruton]
|
18544
|
Maybe 'beauty' is too loaded, and we should talk of fittingness or harmony
[Scruton]
|
18543
|
Do aesthetic reasons count as reasons, if they are rejectable without contradiction?
[Scruton]
|
18542
|
Defining truth presupposes that there can be a true definition
[Scruton]
|
18548
|
Natural beauty reassures us that the world is where we belong
[Scruton]
|
18551
|
Croce says art makes inarticulate intuitions conscious; rival views say the audience is the main concern
[Scruton]
|
18550
|
Art gives us imaginary worlds which we can view impartially
[Scruton]
|
18553
|
Beauty shows us what we should want in order to achieve human fulfilment
[Scruton]
|
18554
|
Prostitution is wrong because it hardens the soul, since soul and body are one
[Scruton]
|
18556
|
Beauty is rationally founded, inviting meaning, comparison and self-reflection
[Scruton]
|
7587
|
The issue of abortion seems insoluble, because there is nothing with which to compare it
[Scruton]
|
7588
|
Allegiance is fundamental to the conservative view of society
[Scruton]
|
7589
|
Altruism is either emotional (where your interests are mine) or moral (where they are reasons for me)
[Scruton]
|
7590
|
Consequentialism emphasises value rather than obligation in morality
[Scruton]
|
7592
|
For positivists law is a matter of form, for naturalists it is a matter of content
[Scruton]
|
7593
|
Liberals focus on universal human freedom, natural rights, and tolerance
[Scruton, by PG]
|
7594
|
Democrats are committed to a belief and to its opposite, if the majority prefer the latter
[Scruton]
|
7595
|
The idea of a right seems fairly basic; justice may be the disposition to accord rights to people
[Scruton]
|
12169
|
Since only men laugh, it seems to be an attribute of reason
[Scruton]
|
12174
|
Only rational beings are attentive without motive or concern
[Scruton]
|
12170
|
Amusement rests on superiority, or relief, or incongruity
[Scruton]
|
12172
|
Objects of amusement do not have to be real
[Scruton]
|
12173
|
The central object of amusement is the human
[Scruton]
|
3878
|
Why should you believe someone who says there are no truths?
[Scruton]
|
3879
|
Philosophy aims to provide a theory of everything
[Scruton]
|
3880
|
Logical positivism avoids scepticism, by closing the gap between evidence and conclusion
[Scruton]
|
3881
|
In the Cogito argument consciousness develops into self-consciousness
[Scruton]
|
3882
|
Wittgenstein makes it impossible to build foundations from something that is totally private
[Scruton]
|
3883
|
A true proposition is consistent with every other true proposition
[Scruton]
|
3884
|
The pragmatist does not really have a theory of truth
[Scruton]
|
3885
|
We only conceive of primary qualities as attached to secondary qualities
[Scruton]
|
3886
|
Membership is the greatest source of obligation
[Scruton]
|
3887
|
Maybe our knowledge of truth and causation is synthetic a priori
[Scruton]
|
3888
|
Hume assumes that necessity can only be de dicto, not de re
[Scruton]
|
3890
|
'Cause' used to just mean any valid explanation
[Scruton]
|
3891
|
If p entails q, then p is sufficient for q, and q is necessary for p
[Scruton]
|
3892
|
Every event having a cause, and every event being determined by its cause, are not the same
[Scruton]
|
3894
|
We may define 'good' correctly, but then ask whether the application of the definition is good
[Scruton]
|
3896
|
Any social theory of morality has the problem of the 'free rider', who only pretends to join in
[Scruton]
|
3895
|
The categorical imperative is not just individual, but can be used for negotiations between strangers
[Scruton]
|
3897
|
Epistemology is about the justification of belief, not the definition of knowledge
[Scruton]
|
3898
|
My belief that it will rain tomorrow can't be caused by its raining tomorrow
[Scruton]
|
3899
|
The representational theory says perceptual states are intentional states
[Scruton]
|
3901
|
Touch only seems to reveal primary qualities
[Scruton]
|
3903
|
The conceivable can't be a test of the possible, if there are things which are possible but inconceivable
[Scruton]
|
3904
|
Measuring space requires no movement while I do it
[Scruton]
|
3905
|
'Existence' is not a predicate of 'man', but of the concept of man, saying it has at least one instance
[Scruton]
|
3906
|
If possible worlds are needed to define properties, maybe we should abandon properties
[Scruton]
|
3907
|
Could you be intellectually acquainted with numbers, but unable to count objects?
[Scruton]
|
3908
|
If maths contains unprovable truths, then maths cannot be reduced to a set of proofs
[Scruton]
|
3910
|
If primary and secondary qualities are distinct, what has the secondary qualities?
[Scruton]
|
3911
|
The very concept of a substance denies the possibility of mutual interaction and dependence
[Scruton]
|
12164
|
Expressing melancholy is a good thing, but arousing it is a bad thing
[Scruton]
|
12165
|
Romantics say music expresses ideas, or the Will, or intuitions, or feelings
[Scruton]
|
12159
|
Without intentions we can't perceive sculpture, but that is not the whole story
[Scruton]
|
12160
|
In aesthetic interest, even what is true is treated as though it were not
[Scruton]
|
12161
|
We can be objective about conventions, but love of art is needed to understand its traditions
[Scruton]
|
12162
|
In literature, word replacement changes literary meaning
[Scruton]
|
12163
|
Literary meaning emerges in comparisons, and tradition shows which comparisons are relevant
[Scruton]
|
12158
|
Aesthetic experience informs the world with the values of the observer
[Scruton]
|
12156
|
Aesthetics has risen and fallen with Romanticism
[Scruton]
|
12166
|
If music refers to love, it contains no predication, so it is expression, not language
[Scruton]
|
12167
|
Reference without predication is the characteristic of expression
[Scruton]
|
12168
|
Music is not representational, since thoughts about a subject are never essential to it
[Scruton]
|
5660
|
Allegiance is prior to the recognition of individual rights
[Scruton]
|
5653
|
A right is a power which is enforced in the name of justice
[Scruton]
|
5636
|
Cartesian 'ideas' confuse concepts and propositions
[Scruton]
|
5637
|
Nowadays logic is seen as the science of extensions, not intensions
[Scruton]
|
8989
|
The benefits of social freedom outweigh the loneliness, doubt and alienation it brings
[Scruton]
|
8987
|
On the surface of deconstructive writing, technicalities float and then drift away
[Scruton]
|
8992
|
Deconstruction is the last spasm of romanticism, now become hopeless and destructive
[Scruton]
|
8988
|
Two marxist ideas have dominated in France: base and superstructure, and ideology
[Scruton]
|
8990
|
So-called 'liberation' is the enemy of freedom, destroying the very structures that are needed
[Scruton]
|