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Single Idea 6983

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 4. Conceptual Analysis ]

Full Idea

Intuitions about possibilities are the bread and butter of conceptual analysis.

Gist of Idea

Intuitions about possibilities are basic to conceptual analysis

Source

Frank Jackson (From Metaphysics to Ethics [1998], Ch.3)

Book Ref

Jackson,Frank: 'From Metaphysics to Ethics' [OUP 2000], p.56


A Reaction

Hence the centrality of the debate over conceivability and possibility. Which seems to reduce to the relationship between 'intuition' and 'imagination'. Imagination is a very weak guide to what is possible, and intuition is very uncertain....


The 27 ideas from 'From Metaphysics to Ethics'

Serious metaphysics cares about entailment between sentences [Jackson]
Something can only have a place in a preferred account of things if it is entailed by the account [Jackson]
Egocentric or de se content seems to be irreducibly so [Jackson]
Possible worlds could be concrete, abstract, universals, sentences, or properties [Jackson]
In physicalism, the psychological depends on the physical, not the other way around [Jackson]
Long arithmetic calculations show the a priori can be fallible [Jackson]
Conceptual analysis studies whether one story is made true by another story [Jackson]
Intuitions about possibilities are basic to conceptual analysis [Jackson]
Smooth reductions preserve high-level laws in the lower level [Jackson]
We examine objects to determine colour; we do not introspect [Jackson]
We should not multiply senses of necessity beyond necessity [Jackson]
Is the dependence of the psychological on the physical a priori or a posteriori? [Jackson]
Keep distinct the essential properties of water, and application conditions for the word 'water' [Jackson]
Analysis is finding necessary and sufficient conditions by studying possible cases [Jackson]
I can understand "He has a beard", without identifying 'he', and hence the truth conditions [Jackson]
Mathematical sentences are a problem in a possible-worlds framework [Jackson]
Redness is a property, but only as a presentation to normal humans [Jackson]
If different states can fulfil the same role, the converse must also be possible [Jackson]
Successful predication supervenes on nature [Jackson]
Folk morality does not clearly distinguish between doing and allowing [Jackson]
Moral functionalism says moral terms get their meaning from their role in folk morality [Jackson]
Which are prior - thin concepts like right, good, ought; or thick concepts like kindness, equity etc.? [Jackson]
It is hard to justify the huge difference in our judgements of abortion and infanticide [Jackson]
Folk psychology covers input, internal role, and output [Jackson]
Truth supervenes on being [Jackson]
Baldness is just hair distribution, but the former is indeterminate, unlike the latter [Jackson]
Conceptual analysis is needed to establish that metaphysical reductions respect original meanings [Jackson, by Schroeter]